Come What May
by Spaidel
Summary: Mags' Games, because she wasn't always this old woman who could barely speak and hardly walk. The 8th Hunger Games.
1. Chapter 1

**I really wanted to write a story about Mags for a while now. There aren't many stories about her, which I think is a shame, since she's such an awesome character.**

**So, I decided that she's not going to be a hopeless girl in the games; she'll be strong, and she'll be a career. Really, we just don't know much about her, and I figured she could be a career, though not a ruthless one. **

**I hope you'll like the story :)**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own the hunger games. Suzanne collins does.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

Most days in District Four are quiet and uneventful. Everyone works, no one celebrates or gets excited for nothing.

On reaping day, however, everything in District Four is a mess – no one is working, everyone are meeting their friends, wanting to know who will volunteer, betting on the person who'll get back home.

I, however, decided to work. Not too hard, just a simple knotting work. It made my mind become organized, and just made me feel better. This was so simple, so easy to do, and to know that this simple thing, this simple net I was making, could turn into a deadly weapon in the right hands was really just mindblowing.

My dad sat next to me in our boat and looked at the sea that surrounded us. This was the only place in this district on reaping day that was just so peaceful and relaxing, and when I told him I wanted to come here before the reaping he immediately joined me.

Because he knew I won't come home with him after the reaping.

"You can still back out, you know," he told me and still didn't look at me.

I loosened my grip on the net in my hands and turned to look at my father, whose face expression was unreadable. "I can't," I said simply.

He turned to look at me, and his deep blue eyes looked right into my deep blue eyes. He looked worried. "It's not your job to help me financially," he said. "Especially not when it could end your life."

"I need to do what I can dad," I said in a tired voice. He kept trying to change my mind, to make me rethink about volunteering to the games, but I already made up my mind. "I'm not going to die – I trained for this."

"I only let you train for the games in case you'll get chosen," father said dryly. "If I had known it will result in you wanting to volunteer…"

"Dad, I am going to volunteer," I said quietly yet harshly. "And I'm going to win, and I'm going to bring home money and luxury. Isn't it what you want?"

He looked at me with soft eyes as he put a stray of my wavy dark brown hair behind my ear. "All I want is for you to be safe."

"I will be," I promised. "I'm not going to die. Trust me."

He didn't trust me, and I could see it. But he knew I will volunteer, and he knew nothing he would do could change that. So he turned around and looked at the sea again, and I just knew he was trying not to think about me dying in the arena.

But I won't die, and I knew I won't because I was strong, because I had experience, because I was tough. I didn't look strong, and I mostly looked sweet and smiley, but looks can deceive. I trained for this games for the past three years none-stop, and I had natural survival skills from the many hours I spent at sea.

My dad knew why I wanted to volunteer – we weren't rich, and we needed the money. My dad, even though he was a good fisherman, didn't bring enough money home from selling the fish he caught. We needed to pay for the Capitol every month, and if we won't have enough money soon my father will have to sell his boat. I couldn't let that happen.

My father didn't talk to me at all for the next two hours; we just sat there in silent, each of us lost in his own thoughts. I was nervous; despite my training, I wasn't a killing machine. I was disgusted by dead people, and I definitely didn't like causing misery and pain to people. But I had to think about my father, who was poor and miserable all his life. I had to help him; because this was my duty. To make my father happy. This was all I wanted.

Though I knew that if I won't come out of this alive, he will be even more miserable than before. So I knew I had to live, that I had to win this.

I wouldn't let him be alone.

My dad eventually told me I should go home and get ready to the reaping and he will join me in a few minutes. I nodded and walked to our house, which was a small, shaggy house. It wasn't much, but it was my home.

I tried to look as presentable and nice as possible; I wasn't beautiful, I wasn't stunning and I wasn't incredibly pretty. I was nice enough. In order to see my beauty people had to look at each part of my face separately. My eyes were my best feature by far.

I didn't have many clothes, so picking a dress was proven to be a very hard task, but in the end I found a nice blue dress that complimented my body well enough. I left my hair loose, it only got past my shoulders and it was organized enough without too much effort, and put my brown torn sandals on my feet. The sandals weren't pretty, they were rather ugly, but they were the only shoes I had.

I heard my father getting inside the house and in a minute he was in front of me. He looked at me with a weird expression, something between sadness and desperation.

"Please don't go," he said pleadingly, and I couldn't help but flinch at the sound of his voice. I never heard him sounding more desperate in my life.

Instead of telling him I already made up my mind and that I will go, I walked towards him and hugged him tightly. "I'm sorry dad," I said, and was surprised at how hoarse my voice was.

He broke the hug after a few moments and looked at me with narrowed eyes. "You're not going to die."

"I am not going to die," I agreed.

"And you will do everything you can to come back home."

"I will do everything I can to come back home."

"And you won't trust anyone."

"I won't trust anyone."

"And if you'll get into a kill-or-be-killed situation, you will kill the tribute who's trying to harm you."

I hesitated only for a minute before repeating what he said, showing him that I'll do as he said.

He nodded his head approvingly after I said it and walked out of the room.

An hour later I walked towards the Seventeen year old section in the main square. Most of District Four was already there, though the announcement of the names didn't start yet. I walked straight to my best friend, Elena, who was looking worryingly at me when I reached her. She didn't like my decision to volunteer, but nothing she said changed my mind.

"You really going to do it?" she asked me.

"Yes," I nodded, and she gave me a disappointed look before turning to look back at the stage.

Our mayor walked towards the microphone on the stage and everyone went silent. He started talking about the rebellion and the Capitol and the hunger games, and I tuned everything out. I didn't want to hear about the rebellion again – I was there when it happened, after all. I saw my mom and younger sister getting killed. I remembered everything about it, though I sometimes wished I could be able to forget. I was only nine when it happened.

When our escort walked to the microphone I listened again. He was a chubby guy, with pink skin and red spiky hair. He looked cute, always happy and cheery. I liked him.

Though he did have the most annoying voice in the whole panem. "Hello District Four!" he squeaked in a high voice that made some of the people in the crowd wince. "Happy hunger games, and may the odds be ever in your favor!"

He walked to the girls' reaping bowl first and clapped his hands enthusiastically. "Let's start with the girls first!" He searched for a nice piece of paper in the bowl and I prepared myself.

"Josaphee – "

"I volunteer!" I shouted, not letting him finish the name.

He blinked several times before smiling his happy smile again. "Oh, yippee! A volunteer! Come here, come! Come!"

I got on stage and tried to appear as brave as possible, though I didn't feel very brave now. Thinking about volunteering was one thing – actually doing so was another.

I already felt like I did a mistake. But there was no turning back now. The damage was done.

"What's your name, hon?" our escort, Jojo, asked. "Mags Taylor," I said as confidently as I could.

"Well, Mags Taylor, I'm happy to announce you're now the female tribute of District Four!" Jojo said cheerfully, and the crowd cheered. Though I could see one man in the distance who didn't cheer.

"And now for the boys!" Jojo said and all but skipped to the boys' reaping bowl. Before he could even pick a piece of paper someone shouted "I volunteer!" from the crowd.

A second later, a young man walked on stage. He wasn't handsome at all, he looked big and resembled a baboon, and I remembered him faintly from training. But he was one year older than me, so I didn't really know him. I didn't even know his name.

"My name is Shane Robe," he said confidently. "And I'm going to be the winner of the eighth hunger games!"

The crowd cheered very loudly as he said this, and I could barely stop myself from rolling my eyes. Cocky much?

"Oh, this is so exciting! Two volunteers, so fantabulous!" Jojo squeaked happily and clapped his hands again. "Now, shake hands, come on! Shake them!"

Shane took my hand firmly and shook it; we both looked at each other this whole time, and I could see he wasn't really too impressed with my physical shape. He didn't try to hide his displease.

We were both taken to the justice building, and two peacekeepers walked me to a big room inside the building. They informed me I had an hour to see my loved ones, and then I will have to go to the train that will take me to the games.

I sat on a couch and waited. I didn't have to wait for long though – a minute later my father walked into the room, looking stressed though not surprised.

He hugged me tightly and didn't say a word – we already said everything we had to say to each other before we left the house to the main square. Though there was one thing I didn't tell him. "I love you," I said, and was surprised to realize my voice was choked with tears.

"Love you too," he said quietly and looked me in the eyes. "You're coming back."

I nodded, and he put a stray of my hair behind my right ear and, with a tight smile, walked out of the room.

I took a deep breath and sat on the couch again. I was so scared now – why was I so stupid? Why did I volunteer?

Right. To make my father happy. He wasn't happy though – he looked miserable.

But he will be happy, when I'll come back with all the money and the glory. He will be happy – this was the right choice. I made the right choice when I volunteered.

Right?

Elena came into the room a few minutes later, and we also didn't really talk. She was disappointed with me, with my decision, but she didn't want to upset me. If this will be the last time we see each other – which it won't be – then she didn't want to ruin it.

"Don't let the careers stab you in the back," she said after a few minutes of silence.

"I won't," I promised. "I'm not stupid, you know. I'm not going to trust them."

"I didn't say you were stupid," Elena said quickly. "But you do trust people easily. Just remember that this is a game, and they'll betray you in the first opportunity they'll get."

I nodded my head, because really, what could I say about it. When Elena had to go, she hugged me and wished me good luck. She didn't cry, she knew I hated it when people cried because of me.

A couple of other people came, friends from school and neighbors. They wished me good luck, told me I can win this thing. I smiled to all of them and said thank you, because being rude was just not something I was good at. I hated it when people were offended by my words.

My hour was soon over and I had to get onto the train that will take me to the Capitol, to the games. There were lots of photographers next to the train, and all of them tried to take pictures of me and Shane and our escort and our one mentor – there was, after all, only one person from District Four who won the games – and I smiled my best smile and tried to make them love me. Sweet and cheerful, that was what I was good at.

Shane, on the other hand, wasn't sweet, nor was he cheerful. He was quiet and looked like a walking bag of potatoes. I really didn't like him, and it seemed like he really didn't like me.

We got on the train quickly enough, and I looked out of the window as the train started moving. I couldn't help but wonder if this was going to be the last time I see District Four.

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><p><strong>Please review! Only takes a minute of your time! :)<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own the hunger games. Suzanne collins does.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

Dinner was a very quiet event. I didn't know what to say, and frankly, my mouth was too filled for me to be able to say one word without splattering the people around me with chewed food. Shane Robe ate as well, though not as gracefully as me, and our mentor, Gaiden, just glared at us and didn't say a word.

Jojo was another story – he talked and talked, but I didn't listen and concentrated on my food instead. And what a marvelous food it was; I was positively sure I just gained ten pounds from that meal alone (well, not ten pounds, but it was a really filling dinner).

At the end, Gaiden broke the silence. "So, you both volunteered."

Shane Robe dropped his fork and looked at Gaiden dumbly, so I guessed this was probably an important talk. I turned to listen too.

"Can you even do something?" Gaiden asked and looked at us both with a disdainful look.

I didn't understand what he meant by "do something", so I just let Shane Robe go first.

"I can throw spears," Shane Robe said immediately and confidently. "I have a nice aim, though I'm better in hand-to-hand combat. I can wrestle, I'm strong. And I can swim," he added as an afterthought.

Oh, I thought to myself as Gaiden nodded his head approvingly. The weapon-talk. The talk that will show my mentor my weaknesses and strengths, the talk that will show him what he's dealing with, the talk that will define my strategy and possibly the outcomes of the games.

But no pressure.

"I can swim, too," I said the first thing that came to my mind, which was really quite stupid, because everyone in District Four learn to swim before they even learn to walk. "I can throw spears, I'm a fast runner, I can knot, I… I can fish, I can climb. I'm not that strong, it's hard for me to lift heavy things… I'm terrible at this, really. But I do have a pretty good aim, so I think that covers for my lack of muscles."

Gaiden gave me a long hard look, but nodded his head, so I took it as a pretty good sign that I wasn't too pathetic.

"We can work with that," he said. "You're both careers, right? You'll work together?"

I looked at Shane questioningly, but he didn't even look at me and nodded his head like it was obvious and like we both discussed it before.

"Excellent!" Jojo squeaked excitedly, desperate to benefit to this lovely conversation.

"So this means I can just talk strategy with the both of you together," Gaiden said simply. "That's good. So," he said, immediately getting down to business, "The games will start in a week and a half; you'll have the chariot rides in two days, since we'll get to the Capitol tomorrow morning and District Twelve will probably get there tomorrow evening. Then there are five days of training, then the interviews, and then off you go, to the Games."

Shane nodded his head immediately and looked at Gaiden like he was the most precious thing in the world. I just tried to get everything in – this was really nerve wrecking, hearing what we're expected to do. And it's all before the games even started!

"So, when we get to the Capitol, you'll immediately go and bond with the other careers. Make sure they'll like you though – most of the times the tributes from District Two and One like to stick together. District Four is a strong district, but not as much as them. They train more for these games. So they often see the tributes from District Four as a part of them, a part of the careers, but the first tributes in this said pack to go. So you'll have to be extremely careful and cautious around them, understood?"

Shane Robe nodded eagerly, and I nodded immediately when Gaiden glared at me. This was an awful lot of things to take in.

"Now, since we don't know who the career tributes are going to be, I can't tell you what your strategy should be. I'll think about it only after I see how you connect with them," Gaiden said, and again Shane nodded his head. Maybe he couldn't talk and this was his way to communicate, with nodding and grunting and shaking his head… no, but I just heard him connect words into a reasonable sentence, saying how good he was with weapons, so maybe he just liked not saying too much…

I only then realized everyone was staring at me expectantly. Did they say something to me? I felt my face flushing by being caught staring at Shane Robe like that. I must've looked dumb, with my glassy eyes and my lips slightly parted.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" I asked no one in particular.

"I asked," Gaiden said, looking annoyed, "If you understood what I said."

"Oh," I said, feeling stupid. "Yeah, I understood everything. Sir. You're a brilliant mentor, really... sir. I mean, watching out for the careers, our own alliance, that's just… brilliant."

I realized how my stupid mumbling just sounded, like I was mocking what he said or something, and hurried up to plaster a big, genuine smile on my face.

At least Gaiden didn't look offended. Maybe he didn't realize himself how what I said sounded, or he just ignored.

I hoped it was the former.

"We should go to the TV room, see the other tributes!" Jojo shrieked unexpectedly and made me jump in my place. I heard a small 'thump' from where Shane Robe was sitting, and guessed he jumped as well.

We walked after the skipping Jojo into a smaller room with a TV and a few couches in it. I sat next to Gaiden while Shane Robe sat next to Jojo, to his great dismay.

We had to wait only a few seconds before the reapings started.

District One was a pretty big district, though not as big as District Four. It was the prettiest district by far though, with all the glitters everywhere and the clean streets and the big, comfortable houses. It always bugged me a little to see how well they lived, unlike some of the districts. Every time District One was shown on reaping I felt annoyed and, to be honest, slightly jealous.

The bowls were like decorations there – no one really paid attention to them. The moment the name was called from the piece of paper three different girls raced to the stage, and the winner, Ruby Sparks, was announced as the female tribute of District One. She was very pretty, a typical District One girl, with long flowing golden hair and big blue eyes. She looked very confident of herself, and smiled like she just won a reward.

The boys were pretty much the same – six guys actually fought each other on their way to the stage. Only one was the winner of it, and this boy's name was Diamond Crater. He was very handsome indeed, with his blonde short hair, brown eyes, straight nose and lopsided smile. Though he had this cocky expression on his face that made him, at least for me, less attractive.

Then District Two came, and the tributes from there were both good looking, yet big. The girl was bigger than both me and the girl from One, but her face was nice and her hair looked soft and smooth. Her name was Cassiopeia Sceptrum.

The boy looked well-built and in extremely good shape. His name was Dorado Altair, and I actually felt fear when he looked at the camera with the deadliest look I've ever seen. I had this freaky feeling that he was looking at me, though I knew it was ridiculous.

Then it was District Three's turn, and the two tributes both looked young and weak and unprepared for this sort of thing. The girl cried as she walked on stage, and the boy tripped as he climbed tp the stairs.

Then it was our turn, and I was disappointed to see how tight and nervous I looked. I didn't look like a career, mostly because I wasn't, not really at least. I had to pretend to be a career though if I wanted to win the games.

Then it was District Five's turn, and the two tributes didn't leave an impression on me. Then it was District Six's turn, then District Seven's, then District Eight's.

I felt something tightening in my stomach when it was District Nine's turn.

First, the girl was called. Mira Kraz. She wasn't beautiful, but she was nice enough. She looked scared out of her mind.

And then the boy was called, and when the boy's name was called this girl, this seventeen year old girl that was now on stage, let out a cry of shock and misery. The boy whose name was just called was Milo Kraz, and by his last name it was obvious they were relatives. Siblings.

The young thirteen year old boy walked on stage, and I felt a pang of sadness when no one volunteered for him. No one, after all, wanted to die in the arena. And if ensuring they won't die this year meant letting the young boy and his sister die, then so be it.

I looked around me to see the others' reactions. Gaiden looked unfazed by this, his expression was the same as before. Shane didn't look sad either; he just looked at the siblings from Nine, his dumb eyes narrowed. Jojo cried silently into a pink handkerchief.

Then it was District Ten's turn, and again, nothing special. District Eleven weren't interesting either. District Twelve provided the regular small kids, the girl, Nova Hood, looked smaller than any girl I've ever seen. She didn't even look twelve – she looked at least nine.

The reapings ended, and the anthem played. Jojo turned the TV off, and, still crying though not-so-quietly now, walked out of the room.

He probably needed to fix his ruined make up.

"So, what do you think?" Gaiden asked and turned to look at me and then at Shane, who looked at him stupidly.

I didn't know what he meant by this question either, so I just stayed quiet.

Gaiden sighed and said, "About the careers. About the other tributes. What do you think about them, about their physical appearance and possible strength."

Oh, I thought to myself. He really needed to elaborate his sentences more.

"I think the other careers all look very strong," I said when I saw that Shane was still staring at Gaiden dumbly. "The guy from Ten looked pretty strong. But our main problem, not in the beginning but in the end, will definitely be the careers."

Gaiden nodded his head approvingly. "You both need to show them you're worth keeping," he said. "And if you're not, just try to make them like you. Flirt with the guys, make the girls love you. Do anything you possibly can."

Flirt with the boys… this made me feel very uncomfortable. I didn't do flirting, never in my life. It made me feel embarrassed. And after seeing the boys whom I'll need to flirt with… well, this was just too much to ask from me.

I'll probably just stick to the girls; make them like me without flirting at all. I was good in making friends, not boyfriends.

"When should I ditch them?" Shane said, no,_ growled_, and I couldn't help but thinking about how he said _I_ and not _we_. This meant I was on my own in this games, and he won't help me. Oh well.

"When there'll be only a handful of tributes left, or when they'll try to kill you. This is up to you, really, not me," Gaiden said dryly. "We'll be in the Capitol in a couple of hours, so why don't you go to sleep? You're going to meet your allies tomorrow morning, after all."

Allies. This word sounded weird while I connected it to the big boy from Two, the slightly smaller yet still very intimidating boy from One, and the two girls who looked like they could easily beat me up.

And they will be my allies during the games, as well as the bag of potatoes who's my district partner.

Oh, joy.

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><p><strong>So, I decided to add two extra days of training. This is, after all, just the eighth Hunger Games, so I guessed it would be okay to at least add them a few extra days of training. <strong>

**Please review! Only takes a minute of your time! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own the hunger games. Suzanne collins does.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

I felt like I only slept for a couple of minutes before Jojo came to wake me up. I was so tired, I felt exhausted. And I didn't actually do anything yet, nothing physical at least.

We were the fifth district to arrive to the Capitol, since we weren't too far away from this big, colorful city. We had to go to a small building and wait there until tomorrow morning, when the last district would come. Today, all we had to do was meet the other careers.

"Go to the first floor," Gaiden said to me and Shane after breakfast that day. "Meet the District One's careers. If I'm not mistaken, the tributes from District Two would show up there as well, and you can meet them all."

Shane nodded his head and, before I was able to do anything, grabbed my arm and practically dragged me to the elevator.

"Can you please stop dragging me?" I said and tried to break free from his grip. He held me way too tightly.

He turned to look at me, raising an eyebrow cockily. "What? Am I _hurting_ you?"

The stupid git. "Let go of my hand," I said, trying to appear brave and in control of myself and not intimidated by his big muscles. He gave me a cocky smirk and let go of my hand.

"You're not a career," he stated when we got to the elevator.

"I volunteered," I replied.

"This doesn't turn you into a career," he said simply. "You're not tough enough. Maybe you can be strong physically, but you're not emotionally strong, at least from what I've seen so far. You won't be the winner of this thing."

"You won't be either," I replied stiffly. And I was positively sure he won't win; he looked too dumb to be a winner.

We stayed silent for the rest of the ride. Shane probably thought I was too weak for him to bother talking to me. I thought he was too stupid for me to talk to him.

We spotted the careers from District One pretty fast; they stood in the hall, not too far away from the elevator. It seemed like they were waiting for us; they weren't surprised to see us.

They both looked way more intimidating up close, and I felt so weak and breakable when I looked at the boy's muscles. I knew I was strong too, but not that strong. I then remembered the tributes from District Two, and how bigger they were. I swallowed.

The girl from District One smiled a wide smile when she saw us and practically skipped towards us. "Hi!" she said, sounding cheerful. "My name's Ruby Sparks. And I remember both of your names, you're Shane Robe, and you're Mags Taylor. I know I'm correct, I saw the reapings so many times already! What do you think about the twins from District Nine? Sad, ah? I hope we won't be the ones killing them, that will be very sad. Though who knows, we probably _will_ be the ones killing them. But let's not dwell on it, it's just a game, after all, and the strongest one gets to live! So, what do you think about the careers from Two?"

She said all this really quickly. Shane looked confused, and his beady eyes looked at this Ruby girl dumbly. I smiled a wide smile, too; this was my time to get friends.

"Very big," I said, and she nodded her head, agreeing with me. "They look so strong, the boy especially."

"He doesn't look _that_ strong," Ruby's district partner, whose name I forgot, said. He looked annoyed, probably because he knew the boy from Two was stronger and more intimidating than him.

"Oh, but he is," Ruby said, not noticing the boy's annoyance. "Have you seen his muscles? They're _huge_!"

The boy rolled his eyes at that and turned to me and Shane. "Diamond Crater," he said shortly.

"Shane Robe," Shane said the same time I said, "Mags Taylor."

Diamond nodded his head dismissively, apparently not caring much for our names. "Both of you are careers, right?"

"Yeah," Shane said immediately, and I looked at him with narrowed eyes. A minute before he said I'm not and will never be a career, and now he says the complete opposite.

Diamond turned to look at my small, almost not-seen muscles with a skeptical look, but before he could say anything the elevator's doors opened to reveal the two huge tributes from District Two. They spotted us immediately and walked straight towards us.

Ruby, again, smiled her huge smile and greeted them. I didn't know if her chirpy personality was real or fake.

We all repeated our names again, and they reminded us their names. They boy's name was Dorado and the girl's name was Cassiopeia.

Shane, the dumbass he was, snorted when Dorado said his name. Dorado gave him the deadliest glare I've ever seen. Shane didn't look bothered.

"Something funny about my name?" Dorado growled.

"It's quite a stupid name," Shane replied, not caring for the fury in Dorado's eyes. "You do realize your name's shortcut is Dora, right?"

What a stupid boy; couldn't he see the Troll Man's face? He looked like he was about to beat Shane's ass any minute. His district partner and Ruby had to put their hands on him, to make him stay in his place.

"Don't you _ever_," Dorado hissed, his eyes narrowed, "make fun of my name. If you do, I will kill you. And I can assure you, it's not a threat – it's a promise."

Shane opened his mouth again, about to say something stupid, and so I immediately grabbed his arm and whispered threateningly to him, "Don't be stupid."

Shane looked at me angrily, but thank god, didn't say anything.

Ruby and Cassiopeia both let go of Dora's arms. Dora (great, now _I_ call him that) shifted in his place and took deep breaths. Diamond turned to all of us, all business like.

"You're all handy with some kind of a weapon?" we all nodded our heads. "Good. So, when the games starts, we're running to the Cornucopia. All of you have to have at least one weapon that you're comfortable with and are able to control it. If you die during the bloodbath, it's your fault. All I can say is that I hope you're better fighters than the ones from last year." Last year, the careers were all pretty stupid. Not completely useless with weapons, but so stupid and confused. Most of them died in the bloodbath. That was also one of the single years a Career tribute didn't win.

"I also suggest you keep your fighting out of the games," Diamond continued, looking at both Shane and Dora. "It's unprofessional and we don't need to tear the Careers' alliance that early."

We all nodded again, except for Dora, who looked at Diamond, annoyed. "Who made you the leader of this alliance?"

Diamond didn't even flinch. "You aren't capable enough to deal with the strongest alliance in the games," he said simply and turned away from the furious Dora.

"And why would you say that?" Dora asked, more annoyed than before.

"You can barely control your anger, and let's be honest, it seems like what you'll be best at will be killing people, not planning strategic plans," Diamond said, and Dora looked thoughtful for a moment before looking away. What Diamond said, after all, was true.

"What do you think of the other contenders?" Diamond asked us.

"The boy tribute from District Seven looked quite strong," Cassiopeia said. I realized this was the first time I've heard her saying anything; her voice was pretty low. "He had some muscles on him. And he's probably pretty good with an axe, seeing it's his district's profession."

"He's quite cute, too," Ruby added and nodded her head importantly.

Diamond gave her a stiff look before turning back to Cassiopeia. "He's not invited to our alliance," he stated stiffly. "I don't care if he's handy with an axe, he's not joining."

"Didn't ask if he could join," Cassiopeia said just as stiffly. "Just said he looked strong."

"Well, we're stronger," Diamond said simply. "I don't recall too many tributes that actually looked strong enough to be a competition. Most of them, if not all of them, looked very weak."

Shane and Dora agreed with him quickly, and it amazed me how quickly they accepted Diamond's rule as their leader. They weren't as agreeable a moment ago.

Maybe they liked the fact he took all the heat to himself. Maybe they thought they could kill him easily if he was to be our leader. Maybe they just didn't have a mind of their own to fight him. Either way, they accepted him.

Ruby walked towards me until she was right next to me. She smiled a quick smile at me and turned to look at Diamond again. She probably didn't really like Cassiopeia all that much; the girl looked intimidating. So she came to stand next to me, the not-intimidating-to-say-the-least girl.

"Does anyone want to say something?" Diamond asked. Ruby looked like she wanted to say something, but both Diamond and Dora shot her a look and she closed her mouth, staying silent. Apparently, they didn't like her personality, or maybe her fake personality, I wasn't sure. I quite liked her. She looked more real like that, even if it was all just an act.

"Guess we'll meet again tomorrow," Ruby said after a long silence. "Chariot rides."

We nodded our head and parted to our own separate floors. I caught Diamond shooting me a disapproving look, probably because I didn't look like a career. I swallowed. Now I knew I had to show them I was more than just a weak girl. I had to do my best in training. I had to get more than a seven after that. I had to be amazing.

This won't be easy at all, considering I'm not that amazing.

Really, volunteering into the games proved to be the stupidest thing I've ever did.

Shane didn't look at me while we were in the elevator. I decided to form a conversation. "What did you think of them?"

"The girl from One looked like an idiot," he said, looking disgusted by the way she smiled at everyone. "The boys from One and Two looked strong. The girl from Two looked strong."

"Think we can be able to trust them?" I asked.

He snorted. "_You_ can't trust anyone," he said, emphasizing the 'you'. "You're only in this alliance right now because you've volunteered and because I told them you are a career. Soon enough, they'll realize you aren't."

"Why did you tell them I'm a career?" I asked, ignoring the other things he said.

He shrugged and said, "We're District partners, and I figured they should see your strength themselves. If you have strength, that is."

I frowned and turned to look away from him. I really hated him, no matter if he was my district partner or not. I didn't like Dora and Diamond either; they both looked way too cocky, and they were both killing machines from the way they looked. It was clear they both trained for the hunger games since they were young. Cassiopeia, I still didn't know what to think about her. She barely talked. Ruby was the only one I actually liked, because she seemed nice. But she did volunteer as a tribute, I reminded to myself. And not only that, she smiled when she got to the stage. She wanted this; she's probably a killing machine, just like the rest of the careers.

I was the odd one, the one who didn't look strong, the one who volunteered for the money, to help her father. I knew I had to prove them I wasn't a weakling. I _will_ prove them that.

Gaiden greeted us when we got back to our floor and told us we have to tell him everything about the other careers. We told him what everyone said there, who looked strong, who didn't, who looked trustworthy and who didn't. To me, actually, none of them looked very trustworthy. The only one I could trust in the arena would be me.

"Chariot rides are tomorrow," Gaiden stated after we told him everything about our meeting with the careers. "You need to do whatever your stylists want you to. Don't object, don't annoy them." He looked at Shane as he said that. Shane didn't look like he got the message. "They can make you beautiful, and they can make you look horrendous. If you annoy them, they _would_ make you look horrendous." Shane still looked dumbly at him. Gaiden sighed and turned to look at me. "Understand?" I nodded my head.

"You need to appear tough there," he continued. "Appear sexy. The Capitol loves the sexy tributes. I've already talked to your stylists, and they promised me they'll make you," he gestured at me, "look sexy. All you need to do is act sexy."

I nodded again, though this made me feel completely uncomfortable. Just like I didn't do flirting, I didn't do sexy as well. I wasn't good at this. I will be eaten alive.

Maybe Gaiden realized it too, because he actually put a soothing hand on my shoulder and said, "Just do your best." I nodded again, liking him more than before.

Gaiden let go of my shoulder and turned to the dining room. I didn't want to eat. I walked to my room, desperate for rest. I felt so nervous of what tomorrow might bring. I didn't like being in the spotlight, and right now I knew I had to be, to make myself be memorable. To gain sponsors.

This won't be fun.

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><p><strong>Please review! Only takes a minute of your time!<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own the hunger games. Suzanne collins does.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 4<strong>

My body hurt. My skin was aching and raw. I felt awful.

I decided I hate being taken care of.

My prep team took care of my body, my hair and my nails, trying to smooth my skin, organize my nails and make my hair look great, wavy and full.

All they did was make me look red and hurt.

They put me in a bathtub and scrubbed off any dirt that was still on me. I never thought I was that dirty, I was most of the time at sea after all, but apparently I was. Very dirty. My prep team was consisted of three women, and they all gasped when they saw the condition of my skin for the first time.

"Oh, my poor eyes!" One of them shrieked.

"Awful. Horrendous!" The other one agreed.

"I'm so sorry for you, dear girl," the third one said, tears in her eyes as she saw the state of my skin.

I wanted to slap them. But I didn't, and just smiled the fakest smile I ever put on my face.

"That's right, we'll take care of you!" The first one shrieked again and immediately took my shirt off.

Waxing was the worst treatment I ever got. I didn't scream though, not even once, because I was supposed to be a career, and I didn't want my prep team to hate me. Gaiden told me to try my best to make them like me.

They declared I was "good enough" two hours later, and practically ran out of the room to call my stylist. I put my robe on quickly, hating the feeling of being so exposed.

A man with dark skin and green hair that resembled me of a tree came into the room five minutes later. He only looked at me for a second before shaking his head disapprovingly.

"Take off your robe."

I did as he said, trying not to let him see how uncomfortable this made me feel. He probably noticed my discomfort though, because he said, "How can you go out there and be sexy if you're so uncomfortable being naked in front of your stylist?"

He was right, of course, and so I took a deep breath and let him survey my body.

"You have a nice posture," he murmured, inspecting my body. "Your skin tone is nice… hair is alright… a little bit of makeup will do wonders to your face… I can work with that. But you need to embrace your costume, look comfortable in it."

I nodded my head to show him I understood, and he immediately took a paint brush in his hand and light-blue pain in his other hand.

He started painting on me twirled lines, which started from my legs and ended on both sides of my face. He added some silver and blue glitters on my temples and on several parts of my body, next to the twirled lines.

He put me in the smallest dress I've ever seen, a dress that was actually built with strips of blue, light blue and green fabrics. It was strapless and was just long enough to not reveal my ass. Though this, apparently, didn't matter too much, because whenever I moved the strips of the fabric, which were connected only in their tops, shifted around me and showed my underwear.

"They'll love it," my stylist, Rasein, promised. I believed him, though this didn't make me feel any better.

I understood what he wanted to do here; the dress looked like the sea, the twirled lines and glitters looked like waves, and my hair, that he left loose, just added to the idea of sea.

I loved and hated it at the same time.

"It's beautiful," I said, which was the truth. It didn't make me love the dress though.

"I'm glad you like it."

"It's really short."

"You'll get more sponsors that way. Trust me."

And I did. So I smiled at him a small smile that wasn't fake and let him lead me to a big room. Most of the tributes were already there, looking ridiculous with their big costumes and strange hairs. Some of them looked amazing. Most of them didn't.

Rasein left me next to my District's chariot, gave me a hug and walked out of the room. I didn't see Shane near the chariot and so I turned to look at the other chariots.

The tributes from District Seven looked ridiculous, with branches in their hairs and mud on their faces. The tributes from District Three were even worse, looking like freaks with wires covering their bodies. District Twelve were naked, which was, for me, hard to see. After all, the girl was only twelve years old.

I suddenly spotted Shane, talking to the other career girls. Their district partners weren't there yet. I didn't know if I should join them, but before I decided what to do Ruby, the girl from One, noticed me and waved at me, gesturing for me to come and join their conversation.

"You look so pretty!" she said the minute I got to them. It was nice, to hear the pretty girl complementing me, and so I smiled at her.

"Not as pretty as you." That was true. I was pretty because of my stylist's best efforts. She was naturally beautiful, and the stylist only made her look even more beautiful. She was covered with diamonds and rubies, which made me smile. Her name, Ruby Sparks, suited her costume perfectly.

Cassiopeia was pretty, too, and she was dressed as a statue. She didn't say anything; she wasn't a chatty person.

Shane was wearing tiny underwear, the same material as my dress. That was the only thing he wore. He, too, had blue lines that twirled on his body. He looked annoyed by that.

"We're practically naked," Shane stated.

"At least we're not completely naked," I said and turned to look at the District Twelve tributes.

"I think a bit of nakedness never hurt anyone," Ruby said.

Both Shane and I shrugged our shoulders and looked away. This was, apparently, the only thing we agreed on – that we didn't want to be almost naked in front of a big crowd.

Diamond, the male tribute from District One, and Dora, the male tribute from District Two, both got into the room and walked towards us. Diamond wore a costume similar to Ruby's costume, while Dora wore a costume similar to Cassiopeia's costume.

"Good; you all look representable." Diamond nodded his head in approval. Shane growled but didn't say anything.

"Look at that girl," Dora snorted and pointed at the girl from three, who was pretty close to us. It looked like she was about to cry.

"Pathetic," Cassiopeia agreed and shook her head with disgust. "She'd be an easy prey."

Prey… this word made my blood freeze.

"I would've liked to have a bit more competition in the games," Dora agreed with her.

Diamond merely raised an eyebrow at their words but didn't say anything. He ran a hand through his unorganized (it was probably organized to look that unorganized) hair, and I saw a strip of blue, simple fabric on his wrist. I didn't understand why he had this fabric, how it benefited his costume or even if it was a part of his costume. I guessed it wasn't since his district partner, Ruby, didn't have any fabric on her wrist.

"All the tributes have to go to their district's chariot!" A voice boomed in the room, and Shane and I walked towards our chariot.

"Want to go first?" Shane asked. He smirked, and I immediately understood why.

"So you can see my underwear?"

Shane's smirk turned into a real smile. "It's not like it's that hard of a task to see your underwear. All you need to do to show them is breath."

That was true. "At least I have strips of fabric to cover my underwear."

"They're not doing a really good job, now are they?"

I looked at him for a moment before I turned around and climbed on the chariot. Once I was on it, I turned to look at Shane. He had a smug look on his face.

"You looked at my underwear."

"Well, they were right there!"

He got onto the chariot as well and stood next to me.

"Why are you suddenly nice to me?" I asked.

"Who said I was being nice to you?"

"You are being nice to me. What, the sight of my panties changed your mind about me?"

He blushed, and I immediately understood the answer to my question was yes. I smirked and turned to look at the District One's chariot. Their chariot was starting to move. Our turn will be soon.

When our chariot started to move, I took a deep breath and tried to look as comfortable as possible. This was a hard task, mostly because it wasn't too hot outside and I was nervous, but I did what I could.

The crowd cheered when our chariot made its way out of the room. Some of the guys in the crowd whistled, which made me blush. I took another deep breath and smiled a fake smile that seemed sincere nonetheless. I blew kisses at the crowd, waved at them, smiled at them. They cheered even louder, loving me. I felt more and more comfortable by the second, seeing that they loved me. My fake smile turned into a real one.

The chariot ride was soon over, and all the tributes walked into a big building divided into floors. Shane and I got to the fourth floor and walked into the living room, where Jojo and Gaiden and Rasein and another woman, who was probably Shane's stylist, were sitting.

Jojo clapped his hands when he saw us walking into the room. "You were marvelous! The crowd loved you!"

Our stylists complemented us and even Gaiden smiled. We were probably doing a nice job out there, even though the only thing we actually did was smile. We really didn't do much.

We watched the chariot rides again on TV. District One was the district that, apparently, left the biggest impression on the crowd, what with all the sparkles and the glitters and the way they shone when the light hit them. They truly looked like jewelries.

We were nice too, though not as beautiful. We were memorable enough, and this was good.

"You should go to sleep; training tomorrow, you know. You have to be as awake as possible!" Jojo said eventually, and gestured for us to go to sleep. After all, there was a big, _big_ day ahead of us.

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><p><strong>Please review! Only takes a minute of your time!<strong>

**BTW... who do you think Mags should be with? Just curious here. I already know who I want to pair her up with, I just want to know your thoughts.**


	5. Chapter 5

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins does.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 5<strong>

"You can visit any station you want. Lunch break will be at 14:30 and will end at 15:15. You are to stay here and train until 19:30, then you all need to go to your respective floors. You can't hurt the other tributes. If you are in need of someone to fight against, you need to tell the person who's in charge of the station to provide you someone. Try not to kill anyone. You may begin."

Most of the tributes, including me, walked straight towards a station they seemed to like. Some of the tributes, the smaller ones, stayed in their place and just looked at the different stations with wide eyes, thinking of where they should go first.

I headed to the spears station immediately. I needed to show my strengths to the Careers, so they'll see I won't be a weakling. Gaiden told me earlier to show them some of my best abilities, but not my really _best_ abilities. He advised me to just show the Careers I can handle weapon, but not show them everything I'm able to do.

Of course, there wasn't much I was able to do, but they didn't know that.

Just as I weighed some of the spears in my hand and tried to see which would be the best for me, which would fly the smoothest and which would have more force, a small boy, the boy from Three, joined me in the station. He didn't weighed the spears, he probably didn't know how important knowing your weapon actually was. He just took one randomly out of the pack of spears on the ground and threw it at one of the practice dummies.

It wasn't even close. It didn't hit it.

I saw the girl from District Two, Cassiopeia, looking at me from the corner of my eye, and I knew this was my time.

I took the spear that seemed to fit me perfectly and looked at the dummy. I knew I would hit it; it was way bigger than a fish, after all, and it didn't move. It was an easy target. The only thing that seemed to be an issue was how far the dummy was from me, I was used to just throw the spears at fish that were close to my father's fishing boat, but I wasn't that muscled-less. I could throw a spear at that dummy.

With that in my mind, I fixed another look at the dummy and threw the spear.

It hit the dummy's stomach.

It was good, the spear sunk deep into the dummy's stomach, which meant my throw was quite powerful. It wasn't the dummy's heart, nor was it the dummy's neck, but the stomach wasn't a bad place for a spear to hit. And it was obviously way better after the boy from Three threw his spear; it made my throw seem better.

I looked at Cassiopeia from the corner of my eye again; she had a blank expression on her face, but she didn't frown, which meant she wasn't not impressed. That was good enough for me, and I instantly felt better about my abilities.

I threw the spear a few more times; it hit the dummy every time, sinking into its "flesh", but never hitting the heart or the eye or the neck, which were the three places I most wanted to hit.

I decided to move to a different station after a while. I wanted to see what else was there. I saw Diamond fighting two guys with a sword – god he was good – and I saw Dora tearing up a practice dummy using a mace. It didn't even look like a dummy anymore. It really freaked me out. I decided not to look at the brutal, happy Dora anymore.

Cassiopeia was throwing knives. She had a very accurate throw, she had a better aim than me. She could actually hit the dummy's eyes and heart.

Shane was wrestling a medium-sized guy in the wrestling station. He was obviously stronger and tougher than the man, so it really didn't say anything, but I still shivered when he threw the man to the other side of the room. It seemed like the man fainted. Nobody cared. He was just an Avox anyway.

Finally I turned to see where Ruby was; she was at the axe station. She looked small and like she didn't have many muscles, but she could lift those axes like they were feathers. I envied her for that; I wish I was strong.

I decided to go to the edible plants station; no one was there, and I decided I needed to know things other than ways to kill people. I wasn't very essential to the Careers, after all, and I had a pretty good feeling that they'll want to get rid of me as fast as they could. I had to at least know how to survive on my own.

I listened to the guy running the station intently, not wanting to miss a thing. I was good at this, remembering things. I could identify most of the plants after one time of explaining. The guy seemed very pleased with me, which made me smile; I just love it when people are proud of me and my abilities. Makes me feel smart.

Just as I was about to write next to each plant the guy gave me what was edible and what wasn't, I heard someone sitting down next to me. I looked at that person. He looked familiar, obviously, every tribute here looked familiar to me, but I didn't remember his name.

He, apparently, remembered my name. "Mags Taylor," he said as a greeting.

"Hey… you," I replied, feeling stupid for not remembering his name.

He smiled at me. "Milo Kraz. District Nine."

My eyes lit up in recognition. "Oh, the Kraz siblings!"

He nodded his head. "My sister's over there." I looked at where he was pointing at, and saw a dark haired girl who was trying to make a fire. She wasn't succeeding.

"Sorry," I said without thinking.

"About what?" He looked confused.

"About you, being here with your sister," I said, knowing that that wasn't very Career-like of me. "And about forgetting your name," I added as an afterthought.

He just shrugged and turned to the plants.

"I want to be here," he said after a short silence. "It's good, that I'm here."

"Why?" What a stupid boy. I really didn't understand him.

"Because I want to be here and protect her," he said like it was obvious. "My sister. I want her to go home, safe and sound. I don't care if I'll live or die. I just want her to live. She's my sister."

I didn't look at him and decided to just look at the plant in my hand. I understood where he was coming from, why he wanted to protect his sister. After all, I came here to protect my dad. Well, not really "protect" him, just make him live in comfort. But what he said still made me feel… unnerved. Something in his tone, how he just accepted his death, how he didn't care.

"It's poisonous," he said to me and pointed at the plant in my hand, which I was staring at for quite some time now.

"I know," I replied and tossed it aside.

We didn't talk to each other anymore. I saw Dora giving me a suspicious look, like he thought I was trying to form an alliance on the side, but seriously, I wasn't an idiot. I knew forming another alliance when I'm already in an alliance with the Careers will be the death of me. Literally.

"Saw you throwing spears today," Shane said as the two of us made our way out of the training room at 19:26.

"Saw you wrestling today," I said in the same tone.

"You were okay," he continued.

"Good to know."

"You need to improve your aim though. It's good, but not enough."

"Okay."

Shane gave me a weird look, but didn't say anything else.

That evening, Gaiden asked us what we did exactly in the training room. We both told him what we did, where we went and what we learned. Shane was mostly in the wrestling station, but he also went to throw some spears later that day after lunch, because he didn't want to wrestle moments after he ate. I was in the Spears station, the edible plants station and later tried my luck in building a fire. I just couldn't lit the branches without matches or a lighter. But I was pretty sure there'll be matches in our hands in the games, we were the Careers after all, so I wasn't too worried.

The next day I focused on my throwing skills. I had a good aim, I really did, but it was just hard for me to focus on the dummy's eye. I tried the heart again, and after a while I was able to hit the heart again and again and again. This made me giddy. And maybe a bit cocky, but damn it, I was able to hit a dummy's heart, after more-than-just-a-few failed attempts. I had the permission to be cocky.

Of course, after seeing Diamond slitting a dummy's throat with an axe, I wasn't as cocky anymore. But the minute I was was nice.

I then decided to move to the knives station, mostly because I knew there were always a lot of knives in the arena. This was the most known weapon out there.

I also figured knives were similar to spears; all you had to do was throw them and hope it'll stick.

They weren't that similar after all.

Knives are smaller than spears, they're shorter and feel different. Still, all I had to do was throw them, so after I got used to them I was able to hit the dummy. I even hit the dummy's eye, a few times. Knives are just easier to maneuver.

"Isn't it nice?" Ruby asked me as we were in the knives station and threw knives at some helpless dummies.

"What? Throwing knives together?" I asked and smiled. Seriously, it was so awful, how I felt this sick happiness when the knives hit the dummies. But I was pretty sure I wouldn't feel this way if the dummy was a real person. This was just a game, throwing the knives at the dummies. Hunger Games… well, it's not a game, not really. It's real.

"Yeah, great way to form a solid, long-lasting friendship," Ruby laughed.

I felt that same sick happiness when my knife hit the dummy's eye. I felt awful and satisfied at the same time.

"God, he's hot," I heard Ruby saying and turned to look at the person she was looking at. The guy from District Six. He wasn't strong, not really, he had some muscles on him but not enough to actually be taken as a threat. He was lifting weights, but when Dora was next to him and was lifting weight three times heavier than this guy's weights, it just wasn't that impressive.

"He's our competition," I stated and turned back to the knives next to me. I actually felt addicted to them; I wanted to throw them, just to improve my skills.

"Doesn't make him ugly," she said and shrugged.

"Do you really find it the right time to check out boys?" I asked her and raised an eyebrow.

She gave me an incredulous look.

"We're surrounded by hot guys – okay, a few hot guys – in a training room, they're sweating and barely wearing anything… so yeah, I think it's a nice time to check them out."

"They'll want us dead in a few days though."

"Yes, but they don't want us dead _right now_."

I shook my head at her stupidity and threw another knife. It missed, which made my stomach clench painfully. God, I wanted to just hit that dummy again…

This thought scared me. I put the knife down and turned around.

"You okay?" Ruby asked me as I made my way away from the station.

I nodded my head stiffly and continued walking. I didn't want to see those knives anymore. I only wanted to throw them. This game of throwing knives was addictive to me, I wanted to keep playing it… but we were playing it to prepare for the real thing.

I decided that a break from the knives station was in order.

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><p><strong>R&amp;R :)<strong>


	6. Chapter 6

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins does.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 6<strong>

On the third day of training, I decided to focus on my tying knots abilities.

Which, apparently, did exist.

And how weird was that, I thought in my head as I continued making a complicated looking trap using ropes. I did make some fishing webs to catch fish when I was with my dad on our boat, but I never really made something else out of ropes.

Like a trap.

And I have to say, the trap looked good. More than good, actually. It was awesome.

The guy running the station, who by the way was quite smitten by my endless abilities with the rope, taught me about the difference between different ropes.

There were the Natural Ropes, which were relatively cheap and not as strong as some other ropes, and have the disadvantage that they have a low point at which they can withstand stress before breaking. He advised me not to use them.

Then there were the Braided Ropes, which consist of a strong core of synthetic fibers, and were stronger than the Natural Ropes.

Finally there were the Synthetic Ropes. They could last a long time, and were superior in that they were generally lighter, stronger, less prone to rot, water resistant and better able to withstand difficult and extreme environments. From the way the guy who was in charge of the station looked at the rope, it seemed like this rope was a Super Rope. I decided to use it when I'll be in the Games. The guy taught me how to identify this type of rope in the arena.

I then practiced a few more knots, I aced them all which made me very happy indeed, and walked to another station after figuring I've been in that station long enough.

I was at the Whip Station a minute later and took one of the light whips. I've never used one before, but I guessed that the whole point of training before the games was to experiment with weapons you never used before, and excel your abilities with weapons you did use before.

I tried to whip the practice dummy that was in front of me. The whip hit the dummy lamely on its side, leaving the smallest mark of rubbing ever.

"You're not very good at it," A voice behind me said.

I turned around to see Diamond standing there, looking at the whips on the table next to him with concentrating eyes. He chose one and moved to stand next to me.

"First time trying it?" He asked me without actually looking at me. I nodded my head.

"Figured." He smiled cockily and whipped the practice dummy. The whip cut through the dummy's "flesh" and left a huge scar behind it.

"Not your first time trying it?" I asked as he turned to look at me.

"No," He answered with a shrug.

"Figured."

He chuckled and grabbed another whip, a longer one now.

"It's all about the movement of the hand," He explained and whipped the dummy again. The whip left an even bigger cut behind it now.

"I don't like this weapon," I said.

"It's not my favorite either."

I took another whip and tried to cut the dummy. It barely left a mark. I decided I really didn't like this weapon.

"I saw you in the Knots Station before," Diamond said with a flat voice.

"That's because I was there," I replied.

"It's not the most popular station in here."

"I know," I said, not knowing where he was going with that.

"It won't help you survive," He said finally.

I raised an eyebrow and turned to look at him, though he still didn't look at me. "All the stations here are to help you survive. Knots Station is no different."

"I suppose," He said after a long silence and then turned to look at me.

"I'm good at it," I said without thinking.

"At what?"

"Tying knots."

"What is there to be good at? You just… tie knots. It's easy."

I frowned. It most definitely was not _easy_. "It's not _that_ easy," I insisted, not liking the fact that he was making me feel so useless and like the abilities I had sucked.

Diamond just shrugged again and turned to his long whip. "Perhaps. I don't know. But I can guarantee to you it won't help you survive. Not like a weapon will."

"I can use weapons too," I said.

"Not as good as some of the other Careers here," He said shortly.

"But better than most of the people here," I said stiffly.

He turned to look at me again and smiled a lopsided, not real smile. "Maybe so. But you can't beat us. The other Careers. Most importantly, you can't beat me."

And with that, he left.

God, I hated him.

I really did.

I wish I could beat him. Too bad he was good at every weapon there was in here, and was bigger than me.

"Yay for allies," I murmured to myself as I put the whip back on the table; seeing Diamond using the whip made me really dislike the weapon, more than I disliked it before.

On the fourth day of training I practiced my Knife and Spear's throwing abilities some more, I wanted to be good at it at least, and then went to the Edible Plants Station again to see if I remembered all the poisonous plants.

The fifth day was the last day of training, and we were able to be in the training room only until 15:15PM, right after lunch. Then we were to go to our private sessions with the Gamemakers.

This made me very nervous. What if I'll embarrass myself in front of them? What if I'll get a poor score? Oh god, what if I'll get less than a six?

After a while of these horrible, horrible thoughts, I decided to be a bit more optimistic and just concentrate on what I was actually able to do.

Throwing spears. Throwing knives. Identifying poisonous plants. Tying knots.

That's it.

Oh god.

The list of what I was able to do was apparently a really short list.

Which, again, made me feel nervous.

I sat down next to Shane Robe as we waited for our turns. I was supposed to go after him. Which meant, I will be the last Career to perform. And probably the worst one out of the six Careers.

Shit.

That wasn't good at all.

Diamond, the annoying not-little-at-all git was called into the room first.

Ten minutes later, his district partner, Ruby, was called.

And then Dora. And then Cassiopeia.

By the time the male tribute from District Three walked into the room to show the Gamemakers what he can do, I shook terribly.

Shane Robe, who had up until now this weird look on his face, like he was concentrating on something really hard (which really didn't suit him well, he was more of a stupid, I-don't-understand-what-the-hell-is-going-on-right-now kind of guy), turned to look at me with an annoyed look. "Stop shaking. It's annoying me."

I tried to control my shaking body, but wasn't very successful at it. The body wants what the body wants.

Still, I didn't want to aggravate Shane Robe even more, and so I sat down in another chair, as far away from him as possible. He didn't seem to appreciate my efforts of not annoying him, and just turned to look at the wall in front of him again, thinking hard of something that was most definitely concerning him ripping the throats of the helpless dummies in his private session and pleasing the Gamemakers.

By the time it was Shane Robe's turn, I was shaking even worse than before. Though now no one actually shot me annoyed looks, thank god, and so I was able to shake in my place with peace.

Though wouldn't the other tribute think it was weird, that a Career shook just before her private session?

Shit.

I really had to start being more of a Career.

It took Shane Robe twenty minutes to be in there. _Twenty minutes_. What the hell did he show the Gamemakers that took so long?

I rose from my seat and made my way to the room where my private session will be held in. I will identify edible plants first, then make some traps, then throw knives and spears at the dummies. Yeah, that's a good plan. A clever one, too. To start with small and end up with big. That would make the Gamemakers be more impressed with me, which was good.

I walked into the room. The Gamemakers sat there, higher than where I was standing, and watched me with concentration. Oh god. Plants, traps, dummies. Plants. Traps. Dummies.

Okay.

I walked to the Edible Plants first and started telling them which of the plants was poisonous and which was not.

They looked bored. Oh god.

I hurriedly finished babbling about plants and headed towards the ropes.

They now looked at me with raised eyebrows, showing me they were very displeased with what I was showing them.

I started making the traps, and a very few of the people there actually looked interested with what I was doing. The majority however, didn't like the sight of me tying knots to say the least.

So I quickly finished tying the knots and headed towards the knives.

They gave me their full attention now.

I grabbed one of the knives and looked at the dummy in front of me with concentrated eyes. I threw the knife. It hit the dummy in its stomach.

I threw another knife. Now the dummy lost an eye.

And with another knife, the dummy's throat was ruined.

Oh, I was so proud of myself!

I moved to the spears. I threw a spear at another dummy.

It missed.

Well, that wasn't good.

I was able to hit the dummy on my second try, and on my third I was able to hit the dummy's heart. Very good! I threw another spear at the dummy. Now I hit its forehead. Well, I was going for the eye actually, but something about the spear hitting exactly the middle of the dummy's forehead seemed more… I don't know, deadly? It seemed more professional. It was good.

The Gamemakers looked quite impressed with me, which made me smile. Thank god, I'm not embarrassing myself in front of the people that in a few days will be able to launch whatever mute they want at me.

I threw a few more spears and knives. One of the Gamemakers told me that I can go after ten minutes of this. I smiled a small smile and walked out of the room.

Yeah, I wasn't bad at all.

I had a good feeling about it.

I got to my floor, the fourth floor, quickly and hurriedly walked into the dining room, having the feeling that Gaiden and Shane Robe might be there.

They were.

They looked at me when I walked in. Shane Robe looked happy. It was weird.

"How did it go?" Gaiden asked me.

I sat down next to him. "Oh, you know, fine," I said, being modest and not wanting to say how great I was.

"What did you do?" Gaiden asked me.

I told him exactly what I did in my private session.

"Well, I don't want to ruin my luck by saying it, but I think I was extremely good. Terrific, even," Shane Robe said with a sense of pride in his voice.

"Well, that's good," I said, not knowing what else to say.

Shane Robe nodded his head. "I handled that mace like I was born to handle it."

Well, that was… weird. "That's great," I said, wanting him to stop talking about how good he was in his private session.

He didn't.

Instead, he started telling me exactly what he did, which mace he used, how he lifted two Avoxes in one time and threw them to the other side of the room, how he threw spears at the dummies. Everything.

This made me feel quite pathetic. Apparently, my private session sucked. At least when I compared it to Shane Robe's perfect, terrific private session.

We ate dinner and made our way to the TV room, to see what our scores were.

Diamond was first. Ten.

Shit.

Ruby was second. Eight.

Dora was third. Ten.

God, that was not good.

Cassiopeia. Seven.

Thank god.

District Three was then. They got a Two and a Four.

This made me feel good about myself again.

Then it was Shane Robe's turn. Nine.

He looked astonished.

"A _nine_? Why didn't I get a twelve?" He complained.

I rolled my eyes. God, I wish I will get a nine…

I didn't get a nine. I got a seven.

Which I was quite happy about. This meant I was good enough to be a Career.

That's right, Diamond. I'm a true Career. And can survive in the Games.

Yay for that!

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><p><strong>R&amp;R :)<strong>


	7. Chapter 7

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins does.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 7<strong>

"Your walk is sloppy! Try again!"

I sighed, feeling annoyed and tired and stupid, and tried to walk in a straight line.

I was only able to take two steps though before Jojo stopped me.

_Again._

"You walk like The Hunchback of Notre Dame!"

I didn't know if it was a compliment or not. I've never heard of The Hunchback of Notre Dame before, so I didn't know how to take Jojo's comment.

I decided to take it as a compliment.

"Straighten your posture! Keep your shoulders back! Don't slouch!"

I tried to do as he told me, I really did, but it was hard. I've never walked in heels before, and I needed to get used to it first.

Problem was, I didn't have the time to get used to those horrible, horrible long things that were under my feet.

Stupid heels. Why would anyone want to wear high heels anyway?

Ugh.

Jojo was frustrated with me and called me The Hunchback of Notre Dame again (I started to think it wasn't a compliment after all), then told me he'll talk to my stylist and we'll try to figure out what to do with my shoes.

"I just don't understand it," Jojo complained as I took off the Shoes from Hell. "You're from District Four, you probably sail all the time! That's what you do, right? And the waves make the boat rocky, right? So how can you be so unstable while walking in high heels? It's practically the same thing!"

I wanted to tell him that no, a rocky boat and high heels were definitely _not_ the same thing, at least I could sit down in a boat and here I had to keep walking, but decided not to say a thing. It would just be a waste of time. He wouldn't understand because he doesn't want to.

So I let him start teaching me other "important" things for my upcoming interview. Like, what are my good angles, how to sit properly (apparently I looked even more like The Hunchback of Notre Dame while sitting down), and how to smile.

Because, apparently, I didn't know how to.

Which was complete and utter nonsense. I smiled. I knew how to smile. What can be so difficult about it? You just… smile.

But Jojo told me that my smile was too weak and that I needed to look more happy while I smiled.

So I did as he said.

And then he told me that I looked scary.

So I had to work on my smile until it was a pleasant and not-scary smile.

Finally, my two hours, my LONG, unbearable two hours with Jojo came to an end, and I went out of the room to go and meet Gaiden, who up until now helped Shane get ready to his interview.

Ha. So now Shane had to work with Jojo.

Sucks to be him.

Heh.

I got to Gaiden's room fairly quickly and stepped inside. I've never been to his room before; it was bigger than mine. Prettier. The bed looked softer than mine.

One of the benefits of being a victor.

Gaiden was sitting in a chair in the middle of the room. In front of him was an empty chair.

I sat down in the chair, looking at the concentrated looking Gaiden.

He didn't talk. I didn't talk. We just looked at each other, he with a thoughtful look, and I with an awkward look.

I started to feel uncomfortable under his intense gaze.

Finally, he opened his mouth to speak. "Try sweet."

I blinked.

"What?" I asked, not understanding.

"Act sweetly," Gaiden explained quite impatiently. "I ask you several questions, and you need to answer them as sweetly as you can."

Oh. Okay.

"So," Gaiden started. "What do you think of the Capitol?"

Act sweetly. Think happy thoughts. Think about... sweet things. Hmm, cotton candy…

"It's tasty," I said without thinking.

Gaiden raised his eyebrows. "What? The Capitol?"

I could feel my face turn red from embarrassment. "No! No, I meant lovely. The Capitol is lovely, not tasty, obviously. Just… lovely."

Gaiden looked at me with a blank expression for a really long time.

Really, _really_ long time.

I was starting to get bored.

It was a really long time.

"Try to act like you're excited," Gaiden finally broke the long silence.

"Excited?"

"Yes."

Gaiden bit his lower lip, then asked, "What do you think is the most impressive thing in the Capitol?"

Okay. Excited.

"Everything here is so impressive, I can't think of just one thing... the colors, the buildings, the people, the food. Everything is so amazing, so beautiful, so impressive!"

Gaiden nodded his head in approval. "That was good. You can definitely use that angle in your interview."

He looked thoughtful again. "Now try seductive," He commanded.

I blinked. "I can't do seductive."

"I know you can't."

"So why did you ask me to try it?"

"For my own entertainment."

I frowned at him. He smirked.

Stupid Gaiden.

"Okay, next question… and keep answering it excitedly," He instructed me. I nodded my head. "What do you think about your training score? A seven, is that enough for you?"

"Oh, I think seven is a satisfying and amazing score. I'm super happy that I got that score." I actually said the truth. I was super happy that I got that score. It was an awesome score.

Gaiden nodded his head again. "That's really good, Mags. Let's try another question… Hmm… Do you think you have a chance in the Games?"

I thought about it for a moment before I said, "I do. I'm smart, I'm quite strong, and I can do it. I believe that I can win."

Gaiden smiled an actual smile. "Very good," He said. I felt proud of myself, that Gaiden actually told me I was good three times. _Three_ times!

He asked me more questions, and I nailed them all. We decided that I should just be excited in my interview. Maybe mysterious, depends on the question. And happy. I had to smile a lot.

Thank you, Jojo, for teaching me how to smile properly.

When my two hours with Gaiden ended, we walked together to the dining room to have lunch before Shane and I go to our stylists.

Shane and Jojo were already there. Shane looked annoyed as hell. So did Jojo. Their session probably went really bad.

We ate quietly. I didn't want to talk to either Jojo or Shane, they seemed too pissed off and I didn't want them to get angry with me, and I didn't have much to say to Gaiden after two hours of nothing but preparations to the interview with him, so lunch was really quiet.

After the quiet lunch ended, Shane and I went towards our stylists' rooms.

"What is your angle to your interview?" I asked him as we walked, trying to be civilized.

"Why would I tell _you_ about it?" Shane Robe snarled at me.

Fine. If he didn't want to talk with me, then we won't talk.

We spent the rest of the walk in silence.

I walked into my stylist's room when I got there. My prep team and Rasein, my stylist, were already there, waiting for me.

They got straight to work; my prep team cleaned me and scrubbed me and hurt me (though I didn't tell them that), then drew long, wavy blue lines on my arms and legs. It was pretty. I liked it.

Rasein then dressed me up in a beautiful long dress. The light-blue fabric was lustrous and pretty and felt nice against my body. It actually showed my curves pretty well (I was pretty excited to discover that I actually _had_ curves).

My stylist handed me a pair of blue flat shoes, which made me smile. Thank God I won't have to walk in heels.

My prep team added a few very light-blue strings to my hair. They left my hair loose.

They worked on my eyes for a very long time. They applied blue eye shadow on my eyelids, then applied black eyeliner, then mascara. It actually looked really good, it made my eyes look bigger than they actually were.

When they finished working on the way I looked, I stared at the mirror. I was pretty. I've never looked prettier in my life. I really felt like a girly girl, with the dress and the makeup and the flowing hair.

It felt good, to be so well-groomed.

I walked out of Rasein's room a few minutes later the minute Shane Robe walked out of his stylist's room.

He wore a blue suit, his hair looked more organized than usual, and he didn't look as annoyed as before. He actually smiled at me the smallest smile ever seen on a human being before.

But it was still a smile.

We started walking together to the room we knew all of the tributes will stay at until the interviews start.

"Nervous?" He asked me.

"No," I lied.

Man, I was nervous. So, so nervous.

I wanted to throw up.

"You?" I asked after a few seconds of silence.

"Nahh," He answered immediately.

We got to the room pretty quickly and walked inside. Half of the tributes were already there, the other half apparently still with their stylists.

The Careers from District Two were there. Dora looked bigger than usual. The person that said that the color black makes you look thinner than you actually are didn't know what he was talking about.

Cassiopeia wore a very bright yellow dress, but it looked pretty good on her. I liked the color, though I knew it would look terrible on me.

Shane immediately made his way towards them, and I walked right behind him.

We sat with them as we waited for the other tributes to show up. The Careers from District One, Diamond and Ruby, were the last tributes to arrive, and were the most striking tributes, too.

They just shone so brightly, it was impossible not to look at them.

A few minutes after they came into the room, an Avox came and gestured for us to stand in line by the door, in the order of our districts.

There was a big screen in the room, and I could see that Davon, the host, already made his way onto the stage. He was laughing and talking to the crowd, and the crowd cheered and applauded.

I really wanted to throw up.

What if I'd throw up on stage?

Oh, that would be embarrassing. And disgusting.

Maybe the Capitol would like it and find it special and different.

Maybe.

"And now, please welcome, Ruby Sparks!" I heard Davon announcing and the crowd cheered.

Ruby walked out of the room and onto the stage, smiling and waving and blowing kisses at the crowd.

She was a natural at it.

She flirted with the crowd, with Davon, with everything and everyone. The crowd loved her. I knew she'd have a lot of sponsors.

Then it was Diamond's turn. He looked calm and collected and dangerous, and I envied him for it. The applauds for him by the end of his interview were stronger than the applauds for Ruby. He left a great impression on the crowd.

Cassiopeia was strong and dangerous and smart.

The crowd loved her.

And then it was Dora's turn, and he looked lethal and intimidating and scary.

The crowd loved him too.

Then it was District Three's turn, and I couldn't help but feel relief when they both stammered and made fools out of themselves. Maybe it made me a bad person, but I preferred to go up after their poor performance than after Dora and his huge muscles.

And then it was my turn, and I made my way slowly up the stage. The sudden light up there hit me without warning, and I couldn't help but squint my eyes; I probably looked so stupid, but oh well.

When I got used to the light, I made my way to the middle of the stage, were Davon was. The crowd still applauded me, and I couldn't help but feel a bit more relaxed, now that I walked onto the stage and faced the crowd.

"So, Mags Taylor," Davon said, smiling at me warmly. "You look stunning tonight."

I smiled a real, big smile at that. 'Don't be scary, don't be scary', I repeated in my head, hoping that my smile looked normal and nice. "Thank you," I said finally, still smiling.

"So, Mags. Now that you're here in the Capitol, do you miss anything, anyone, from District Four?" He asked.

I had to think about it for a few moments. "I miss my dad," I said truthfully. "And the sea. I miss the small of fishing, because it reminds me of home and my dad, and it's the best smell in the world. But I love it here, too," I added quickly, remembering that I needed to sound excited. "This place is amazing, so big, bigger than District Four that's for sure. I love it here."

That wasn't entirely true, well, not true at all, but the crowd loved it and cheered loudly.

"Really? You think the Capitol is amazing? What do you find the most amazing in here?"

I smiled. I knew exactly what to answer, I already worked on it with Gaiden. "There are too many amazing things in here, I can't just pick one! The buildings, the people, the colors, the food, everything."

The crowd cheered again, which made me feel really good.

"I'm glad you like it so much in here," Davon said, smiling at me. It seemed like all he did was smile. "What do you feel about your seven?"

"It's great!" I said excitedly. "It's a lovely score."

"It is indeed," Davon agreed with me. "Do you have a plan to the Games?"

"Yes," I answered shortly and with a smile.

He leaned closer to me. "And what is this plan, exactly?"

I just smiled like I was keeping a secret from him. "You'd have to see when the Games will start." It's not like I had any special plan, but this just made me look mysterious to the crowd, which was good.

"And, final question!" Davon declared. "Do you have any special someone back home?"

I raised my eyebrows, surprised by the question, then just shrugged. Of course I didn't have a boyfriend that waited for me back home, but the people in the Capitol didn't have to know that. I didn't say anything, and the crowd looked disappointed by that.

But they still applauded very loudly when I left the stage, and I felt good. The interview was okay, I didn't embarrass myself, and I didn't throw up!

That was a cause to celebration.

Too bad I didn't have time to celebrate.

The Games will start tomorrow, after all.

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><p><strong>Hope you all have a lovely day, and please, REVIEW! :)<strong>


	8. Chapter 8

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins does.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 8<strong>

Any normal person who's about to get into an arena filled with murderous kids who want to kill them can't sleep the night before, and all they can think about is what might happen in the next day.

Well, not me. I slept like a baby.

Not because I was confident about what might happen or because I wasn't excited, but because I was just really, _really_ tired.

I woke up the next morning, feeling sick and hearing the shrieks of an overly-excited Jojo.

"Mags! Oh, Mags! Wakey wakey, time for the Games! It's going to be just lovely!"

I wasn't really sure about the lovely part, but I got out of bed anyway, wanting to throw up but trying my best not to.

I got to the door, my hair disheveled, my eyes wide with the sudden urge to throw up, and unlocked it. Jojo clapped his hands excitedly at the sight of me.

"Good! You're awake!" He said with his wide smile.

I nodded my head, because really, what could I say in response?

He immediately grabbed my arm and led me to the dining room. I gulped when I saw that Shane Robe was already there, eating and drinking and looking mostly relaxed, maybe just a tiny bit excited. He was good at not showing his excitement, but his eyes twinkled in anticipation.

I sat down in front of him, and he nodded at me, then focused back on his food, which was apparently far more interesting than I was.

I grabbed a big sandwich that was on a plate next to me and looked at it, not wanting to eat it but knowing that I should eat something.

I ate the whole sandwich, which tasted so bland in my mouth it was almost unnatural. I felt like I was eating a rug.

I drank as much as I could. I drank so much, it made me feel sick even more than before.

In the end, it was time for me and Shane to go to our stylists and prepare for the Games.

Shane Robe looked at me for a few moments, then said, "Meet you there, I guess."

I nodded my head and didn't say anything, mostly because I thought I might throw up if I open my mouth. And throwing up in front of a lethal boy who's also my ally in an arena filled with kids who want me dead is definitely not a good thing.

I shakily made my way to my stylist's room, opened the door and stood awkwardly there when I saw no one was in the room. I only had to wait for a few seconds though before my prep team came and cried at the sight of me.

"Oh, so young, so young!" They kept crying and crying.

They didn't make me feel very good, really.

They cleaned me up, which wasn't extremely painful now. Definitely not as painful as the first time they cleaned me up, because now I didn't have a lot of dirt on my body. They didn't have to make me pretty to my stylist either, which was also a relief. No, they only cleaned me up and left the room to call Rasein.

I waited patiently, feeling stupid for actually volunteering to go into this Games.

I only had myself to blame.

God, I was so, so stupid. I would've kicked myself for my stupidity, but really, kicking myself would only make me look even stupider than I actually was.

Raisen got into the room after a few minutes and dressed me up in black tights, grey t-shirt, sports shoes, a blue belt and a black sweatshirt.

"It'll probably be warm in the arena," Raisen said as he dressed me up. "The tights are comfortable but won't warm you up, which means it'll be hot in there. You don't have boots, so it's probably not going to get rainy there. The sweatshirt is for the nights, I presume."

I nodded my head, happy that it's not going to be extremely cold in the arena. Though maybe there won't be any water sources there, which would be a problem.

A few minutes later I was ready to go. Raisen walked with me to my hovercraft and kissed my cheek. He told me to do my best. I nodded. I just couldn't find the right words today. I was too nervous for words.

After they put the chip in my arm I sat in the hovercraft and closed my eyes.

A few thoughts crossed my mind in that moment, none of them pleasant.

_In a few minutes, I'll be in the arena._

_In a few minutes, the Games will begin._

_I need to pee._

To be honest, the last one actually freaked me out the most. Going into the bloodbath with a strong urge to pee can't be good.

Why did I have to drink so much water before going into the Games?

Stupid, stupid, stupid!

I tried not to think about my extremely-full bladder, but it proven to be a rather difficult task.

I sighed in relief when the hovercraft finally landed and prayed that I'd have time to go to the bathroom before the Games.

I didn't.

Two guys led me to a small room and left me there.

The room was small and dark. There was no toilet seat in there.

There was only metal plate on the floor, which I knew I had to step on. One of the two guys that led me here told me to step on it when I hear a clicking sound.

I bit my lower lip, shifted a bit in my place (I really had to use the bathroom), then when I heard the clicking sound I stepped on the metal plate on the floor.

A few minutes passed and nothing happened, and then a glass cylinder was lowered around me. The cylinder, and me, started to rise.

It was dark for a few seconds.

Then I had to close my eyes when the blinding light from outside surrounded me.

I blinked several times as the metal plate pushed me outside of the cylinder. It took me a while to get used to the extremely bright light, and when I did I finally took in my surrounding.

There was green grass around me. Forest to my right, a nice big lake to my left. Cliffs and mountains in the distance.

It actually looked pretty nice. Better than some of the earlier arenas in these Games.

Suddenly, the head Gamemaker, Roman Pollivake's voice boomed in the arena, and I gulped loudly and looked at the sky stupidly, searching for the source of the voice.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let the eighth hunger games begin!"

I now had one minute to look around me at the Cornucopia. I saw knives close to where I was standing. There were actually a lot of knives scattered around on the ground, it was the most common weapon in the Games. I didn't see any spears, maybe they were deeper in the Cornucopia.

I had thirty seconds left. It was hard for me to breath. I was feeling suffocated.

20, 19, 18…

_I have to grab the knives before I go deeper and search for some spears._

15, 14, 13…

_I hope I won't die._

10, 9, 8…

_Please, please, please don't let me die!_

5, 4, 3…

_God, I really need to pee._

*BOOM!*

I got off my plate and ran to the knives, knowing that I have to be armed. When I got to the knives another tribute, the boy from District Five, grabbed them. We looked at each other awkwardly for a few moments, unsure of what to do, and then an arrow hit the boy's neck and he let go. I looked at him for a moment, then grabbed the knives and got to my feet.

I scanned the area. There were already four dead tributes on the ground, or maybe they were just wounded. Either way, they were on the ground, not moving. I saw my fellow Careers smiling and running and killing people and just enjoying themselves.

I bit my lower lip and looked at the big trees in the woods to my right, seriously thinking about going there for just a few seconds to do my business (pee). The other Careers didn't even notice me. Maybe they won't notice me disappearing for a few moments. They were just too happy to care.

In the end I decided to just get this over with and go hide behind a tree and hope that no one would see me in that private moment. I mean, being killed while you pee? That's just embarrassing.

I ran to the woods, where I already saw a few other tributes running into, but didn't run too deep. I found a few big trees that could hide me pretty good from the other tributes, then finally got to business.

I wouldn't lie. It was awkward. As I was sitting there, feeling relieved as my bladder was slowly emptying, I heard the sound of kids screaming.

Really,_ really_ awkward.

When I was finally done with that I walked from behind the trees and made my way back to the Cornucopia. I saw the other Careers still killing kids, so I hurried up and grabbed one of my many knives. I looked around me, biting my lower lip and unsure of what to do. I really didn't want to kill anyone, but as a Career, I had to. I'd be killed by my own allies if I won't kill anyone.

And with that on my mind, I threw the knife at a small tribute that was running away from an overly-happy Dorado.

The boy fell to the ground, the knife stuck to his back, and breathed deep breaths. He looked so tiny, he was probably only twelve years old. I got to where he was and pulled the knife out of his back, hating the sight of it in there. I then rolled the boy to his back, which was probably not the smartest thing to do, because his eyes were still open and he looked at me with a scared, terrified expression on his face.

I was a bad person.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, then held the knife right over his heart.

_Just do it fast_, I thought to myself as I drove the knife into the little boy's heart.

He inhaled sharply as the knife cut through his skin, then didn't breathe. At all.

I killed him.

And in that moment I knew I was going to hell.

I was about to get to my feet and walk away, but something stopped me. The little boy's face expression. He just looked so scared, I couldn't…

I just couldn't let him look like that.

So I closed his eyelids, feeling relieved that he wasn't staring at me anymore.

His terrified wide eyes were burned into my brain. They were just so grey.

He was probably from District Twelve.

I finally got back to my feet and looked around me. Thankfully, it seemed like none of my fellow Careers saw how I closed the little boy's eyes, which was a sign of weakness. There were only two more boys in the Cornucopia with the rest of us Careers, and they were both about to lose. Ruby and Cassiopeia were looking through the things in the Cornucopia as Shane, Dora and Diamond were fighting against the two other boys. I decided to join Cassiopeia and Ruby in the Cornucopia.

I passed the dead kids on the ground and quickly got to where Ruby and Cassiopeia were.

Ruby smiled at me when I sat down next to her. "Hello," She said conversationally as she grabbed an axe from the pile of weapons on the ground.

I looked around me, searching for some spears. "Hi."

"Nice weather," Ruby said and pointed at the sky.

I nodded my head, not really knowing what to say about that.

Diamond killed the boy he was fighting against and joined me, Cassiopeia and Ruby inside the Cornucopia as Shane and Dora were still fighting.

"Where were you?" He asked me as I finally found some spears in there.

"Where was I when?" I asked.

"When we started fighting, I didn't see you. Where were you?"

My face instantly turned red from embarrassment. "I had some errands to do."

He frowned at me, and Ruby and Cassiopeia turned to look at me too, curious. "What kind of errands?"

"Just, errands. Nothing special."

He was still frowning. "Were you trying to form an alliance with another tribute?"

I shook my head, feeling like a tomato. "No."

"So what kind of errands did you have?"

He was suspicious of me, and I knew I had to tell him the truth, embarrassing as it was.

"I had to pee."

He looked surprised by that. He didn't expect that. "What?"

"I drank a lot of water before going into the arena, I just… I had to go." I avoided their eyes, my face even redder than before. "Sorry," I added suddenly, not really knowing what else to say.

There was a long, long silence.

And then I heard the sound of laughter, and looked up. Ruby was practically rolling on the ground, laughing at my misfortune. Cassiopeia and Diamond were both smiling, though Diamond tried to hide it.

I felt relieved when Shane and Dora finally returned from their fight, and the cannon boomed.

Dora frowned at the laughing Ruby. "What's so funny?"

I wanted to die.

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><p><strong>I didn't really want to finish the chapter on such a sad note, but I didn't want the chapter to be too long, and over 2,000 words is too long for me.<strong>

**So it ended like that. Sorry.**

**I'd love to get to 40 reviews. Please help me get to 40 reviews!**

**If you don't know what to write in your review, here, let me make it easier on you and give you examples on what you can write -**

"Mags is awesome!"

**Or -**

"Thank you, Spaidel, for showing us what happens to tributes who want to pee during a bloodbath."

**Or even -**

"Oh, that poor 12 year old boy! *sob sob*"

**BTW, who do you want Mags to be with? It really interest me, to see who you think she should be with.**

**Please review, and have a lovely day! :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins does.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 9<strong>

The cannons boomed a few minutes after the bloodbath ended.

Me and the other Careers all looked at the sky and started counting them.

1… 2… 3… 4… 5… 6… 7… 8.

Eight dead tributes.

I looked at the ground, because I knew that one of the dead tributes was dead because of me and even though I knew I had to kill him so that my fellow Careers won't kill me themselves for being useless, I still felt bad. Because I'm not a killer, and the boy didn't deserve to die, and I was a bad person.

I heard a loud curse coming from Dora and turned to look at him. He looked annoyed for some reason. Next to him was Shane, who still looked dumbly at the sky. Maybe he lost count or something or forgot how many booms boomed.

"Only eight tributes died?" Dora asked loudly and shook his head in disappointment. "That sucks."

You suck, I said in my head, but of course I didn't say it out loud, because not only it's an extremely lame insult, it would also get me killed for sure.

Diamond looked at Dora for a few long minutes, then dropped his bloody sword to the ground. "Let's make food," He said simply.

Dora frowned. "I want to hunt down tributes."

Diamond raised an eyebrow. "Well, do as you like. We," He gestured at us, the rest of the Careers pack, "Are for now staying here and making food."

Dora was still frowning. "Killing tributes is more important than food."

"I don't know if anyone ever told you that, but without food, you die," Diamond said flatly. "And I'm hungry."

Dora looked annoyed but didn't say anything. His district partner, Cassiopeia, came to him and patted him on his shoulder, comforting him. "Don't worry, Dorado. If we eat and rest now, we'll have more energy to hunt down the other tributes when it's dark and they're defenseless. How does that sound?"

She sounded like a mother who was trying to make her little boy happy. Dora looked at her for a few seconds, still annoyed, then sighed and nodded his head.

"Fine. But I'm killing the first one we see."

"Deal," Diamond said and turned to the Cornucopia again to search for food.

Ruby smiled at me. "Want to help me get some water, Mags? You must be thirsty after all the water you drank this morning left your body in your errands."

My cheeks flushed and I shot her an annoyed look. Now forever everyone would remember me as, "Mags, the girl who peed."

Well, at least it's better to be remembered like that than to not be remembered at all.

If peeing in the arena makes me memorable, then so be it.

I'm the girl who peed.

Just as I was about to go with Ruby to get us some water in a few empty bottles that were on the ground next to us, Diamond walked to us with a weird expression on his face.

"Have you seen anything edible in the Cornucopia?" He asked us when he got to us.

Shane looked at him dumbly. "No, you were the one searching for food."

Diamond rolled his eyes. "I know that."

Shane blinked. "Oh."

God, they were idiots.

Diamond ran a hand through his short blond locks. "There isn't any food in the Cornucopia."

"What?" Cassiopeia asked, looking worried suddenly. "There has to be food. There has to. They won't let us starve."

By 'they', she probably meant the Capitol. But, I mean, why wouldn't they let us starve to death? After all, they brought us here to die in the first place.

"She's right," Dora said. "This would be a really boring Games if we just starve to death. And it would end too quickly."

He was right. Which actually really surprised me.

Diamond was getting angry. "Look, if you don't believe me, search for food yourself. There's nothing there."

Dora looked at Diamond for a long time before he, Shane and Ruby went to search for food themselves. Maybe they thought they'd find something that Diamond didn't find.

Diamond looked at them for a few long seconds, frowning, then turned to look at me. He kneeled to the ground and grabbed the bottles that Ruby dropped when he delivered us the awful news, then got back to his feet and threw the bottles at me. I, of course, didn't catch them and I had to kneel down myself to hold them.

"Get us some water," Diamond commended, then turned back to the Cornucopia to watch the other Careers search for food that wasn't there.

I frowned at his back. It seemed like he was talking to his servant, not his ally.

Stupid Diamond and his stupid personality.

But I did as I was told, because he was bigger than me and far more frightening than me, and returned with a few bottles filled with water from the lake near the Cornucopia.

The other Careers looked angry and tired and frustrated after searching for a long time without finding anything, and I handed them the bottles in silence, not wanting to annoy them when they were already so annoyed.

We all drank for a few moments, not saying a word, until Cassiopeia broke the silence.

"We need food," She said.

Diamond rolled his eyes. "No shit."

She ignored him. "There are probably animals and edible plants in the woods. We can find food in there."

Ruby sighed. "Oh, that's just so inconvenient. Are we supposed to kill and clean and make our own food?"

I liked Ruby. I really did, mostly because out of all the Careers here, she actually liked me back. Or at least I thought she did. It's hard to tell in these Games. But seriously, she's extremely excited to kill and hunt down tributes, but when it comes to food and animals she's lazy?

Seriously.

"Well, maybe we'd have no choice but to go there and found our own food," Diamond said. "Do any of you know which plant is edible and which is not?"

My fellow Careers, of course, had no idea about poisonous plants. Because it just wasn't important. And because why would they, the Great Careers, need to know which plant they can eat when they have the food in the Cornucopia to eat?

But now the circumstances changed, and they don't know what to do.

Lucky they have me.

"I do," I said, and the other Careers all looked at me.

Diamond nodded his head. "Okay. Good. You and Dorado go to the woods and collect edible plants –"

"What?" Dora said loudly, sounding pissed off. "No, I don't want to collect leaves!"

"Shut it Dorado, it's either that or build a fire."

Dora seemed to think about that. In the end he just growled loudly.

Diamond apparently took it as an approval for him to continue. "Cassiopeia and Ruby, you build the fire then, and Shane and I will go and try to hunt."

After giving all of us directions, Diamond turned to grab his swords again, and Sane followed him to take a spiked mace.

Dora looked at me for a long minute, then growled again and gestured for me to follow him. We walked into the woods, not talking, and looked around us at the trees and bushes.

Dora made his way to a familiar looking plant. "What about that?" He asked and pointed at it. "Seems safe." He picked a few of the plant's leaves and put them in his mouth, chewing them loudly. "And it doesn't even taste that bad. Do you know what its name?"

I nodded my head. "Yep. The 'Killing Poison'."

He immediately spat the plants out and looked at me with wide, horrified eyes. "What?"

I smiled sweetly at him. "Just kidding."

He gave me his best murderous glare.

I suddenly feared for my life.

"I just – I mean, you can't just put plants in your mouth without making sure they're not poisonous. You could've died, and that… that would be sad. Really sad. Extremely sad. The Career pack won't be the same without you, oh Great Dorado, please don't kill me."

He looked at me for another few seconds, as if he was still considering to just kill me and say it was just an accident, then he shook his head, looking less murderous, and said, "The Career pack really won't be the same without me, ah?"

I nodded my head. "We would die without you to protect us."

He smirked, apparently feeling proud of himself for being such an essential Career in our pack.

He then pointed at the plant that he ate a few moments ago. "But… I mean, it's edible, right?"

I looked at the plant and nodded my head. "It's edible."

He looked the tiniest bit relieved by that. "Good." He then turned to another plant. "What about this one?"

"You mean, the 'Deathly Nightmare'?"

"Never mind."

We stayed in the woods for a little more than an hour and searched for plants and leaves and flowers we can eat. There was another boom as we were in the woods, and Dora immediately turned to look around him like a hunting dog who was trying to smell the blood of the pray.

We finally returned to the Cornucopia. It wasn't dark yet, but the sky wasn't as bright as before. Cassiopeia and Ruby were sitting next to a small fire. They found a few sleeping bags in the Cornucopia and they put them on the ground around the small fire.

I dropped the plants Dora and I gathered on one of the many sleeping bags and sat on it next to the pile of plants.

Cassiopeia and Ruby both walked to me and sat down on the ground next to the sleeping bag and the plants. "You sure they're all edible?"

"Yes," I said. I had a really good memory. I knew which plant was good and which wasn't.

Ruby looked satisfied by that and took one of the plants. She put it in her mouth and chewed it. And then she spat it out.

"Yuck," She grimaced and shuddered. "Disgusting."

"But edible," I said simply.

We had to wait for another hour before Diamond and Shane finally returned from their hunting trip. Diamond was holding a dead chicken and Shane was holding a dead bunny. Neither of them was very big, but they were food, so it was good enough.

Ruby bit her lower lip when Shane dropped the dead bunny on the ground. "Oh, that poor bunny!"

Shane ignored her. "Guess what," He said, sounding happy and proud of himself.

"You decided to become a tap dancer," I said.

He looked at me and frowned. "No." He smiled. "We killed a girl."

Dora immediately joined the conversation after hearing the word 'killed'. "Where was this girl from?"

Shane shrugged. "I don't know. District Three, maybe. She looked pathetic and small and weak. She actually begged for her life. It was quite entertaining."

"Man, I wish I would've came with you," Dora said, sounding jealous.

Stupid Shane and stupid Dora and stupid Careers and stupid Games.

Diamond threw the dead chicken and bunny at Cassiopeia. "Clean them," He said flatly and turned to eat some of the plants I picked. I looked at a confused Cassiopeia and decided to help her out. I, unlike her, cleaned fish and stuff like that before. She probably didn't clean even one animal in her life.

Together we cleaned the chicken and the bunny, and an hour later it was on the fire.

The sky turned dark, and we all agreed to go hunting after we eat and see who died in the bloodbath, because after the bloodbath we had to clear the area for a few moments so that a hovercraft will take the dead tributes, and so we weren't actually able to see who died and who survived.

The anthem played as we started eating the animals, and I watched the faces of the dead tributes, feeling sad that they had to die but also happy not to die myself. Better them than me, I thought to myself, knowing that I was a complete bitch for thinking that but not able to stop myself from thinking that.

The first face appeared in the sky. The face of the boy from District Three. Then the face of his district partner, the girl who Shane and Diamond probably killed. Then it was the face of the boy from District Five. Then the boy from District Six. Then the girl from District Eight. Then the girl from Ten, then both tributes from Eleven, and the last one, the most painful for me to watch, was the boy from District Twelve.

I killed him.

I was an awful person.

Not as awful as allies, but still, pretty bad.

We ate the whole chicken and the whole bunny, and after Shane burped extremely loudly Diamond got to his feet.

"Well," He said to us as we all stood up next to him, "Time to kill some tributes."

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><p><strong>It's three o'clock in the morning where I live in. I returned home only an hour ago after hanging out with my friends, my head hurts, and I'm so tired I'm about to collapse.<strong>

**And yet, I still updated.**

**And it's a fast update, too! Only 4 days after uploading the last chapter, that's awesome. And it's all because of your reviews. Seriously, 16 reviews? That's amazing.**

**See? A lot of reviews = Faster updates.**

**I think I deserve a review. I'm half asleep right now as I write this Author Note, and was half asleep as I finished writing this chapter.**

**BTW, I didn't read the chapter after writing it, so I'm sure there are a lot of mistakes... I'll look at it in the morning. Right now, I need to sleep.**

**A reminder: A lot of reviews = Faster updates.**

**Remember that.**

**Have a lovely day :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins does.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 10<strong>

Walking in a place filled with trees and bushes and deadly mutts at night is not a very fun thing to do, as I found out the hard way when the other Careers and I searched for tributes to kill.

I drew a lot of unwanted attention to myself as we searched. I accidently stepped on twigs and got stuck in a gigantic cobweb (thank God the big spider the web belonged to wasn't there, 'cause I'm pretty sure it's a mutt's web), and, of course, I walked straight into a mad looking Dora. I'm not an extremely clumsy person, but it was all really _really_ dark, I couldn't see what was right in front of me.

Thank God Cassiopeia ran into a tree four times, because I didn't want to be the only one making a fool out of herself.

We walked fast, too fast for my taste but no one cares anyway, so no point to tell them to slow down. They were all eager for blood, because here, the more blood spilled, the less tributes there are, which mean there's less competition, which means we're closer to win this thing and get back home.

For over an hour we just roamed around, looking at the dark shadows of the trees around us, barely making a shape in this dark place. Well, everyone except Diamond, of course. He had his 'super mega foxy cool night vision glasses', as Ruby said when she first laid her hands on them, and he took them for himself when we realized that the only pair of night vision glasses left in the Cornucopia. He just likes to be in control in my opinion.

Suddenly Dorado, who was right in front of me, stopped, which caused me to crash into him which caused him to growl at me.

"What's wrong?" Diamond asked Dorado quietly.

I could hear more than see Diamond walking to stand next to Dora. "Heard something," Dora said quietly, I didn't even know he was capable of saying things quietly.

"Where did this noise come from?" Diamond demanded.

Dora probably made some kind of a gesture towards the source of the noise, 'cause the next thing I know Diamond led us all very quietly to a pretty big clearing in the middle of the woods. There were fewer trees here and I could see things around me pretty clearly, which made me feel quite relieved. I hated the feeling of complete blindness.

I didn't see anyone though. I kept looking at the ground around me, squinting my eyes hard to try and see something, anything, besides the regular plants.

"I don't see anyone," Ruby said loudly.

Diamond immediately hissed at her, "Shut up!"

She rolled her eyes. "So rude."

Diamond ignored her and looked around him with his 'super mega foxy cool night vision glasses'. He looked at the ground first, then he started looking up. He froze when he looked at one of the trees there.

"What is it?" Shane asked him and looked at where Diamond was looking. We all did the same, but I couldn't see anything, so I just felt extremely dumb when everyone started whispering excitedly, "We got one! There's a tribute right there!" I decided to nod along with them importantly instead of telling them that I just couldn't see him.

"Hey, little twig! Why don't you come down here? We'll take care of you real nicely!"

"No we're not, we're going to kill him," Shane said, blinking stupidly at Diamond.

Diamond didn't even bother to explain what he meant by saying 'taking care of'. "Don't be shy, come down!"

I could now see a clear movement on the tree, which made me feel a little bit better. At least now I didn't feel dumb for not seeing it.

"He's not coming down," Shane informed Diamond.

"I can see that," Diamond replied flatly.

"Then what are we going to do then?"

I looked at Diamond, then at Dora, and finally at Shane. They were all very big and I just couldn't even imagine them climbing on trees very well. And they all looked at the tree with blank expressions on their faces, like they had no idea how to even approach it.

"Oh, let me handle it," Ruby said. She took her knife out of her pocket and held it tightly in her hand as she got closer to the tree. She immediately started climbing it. She was very quick and got to where the tribute was in only a few seconds. I could see now shadows of two kids there, one of them was obviously Ruby, the other one was the little tribute. I could see her raising her hand and I could see him moving as far away from her as possible, but he didn't have a way to escape her.

She quickly stuck her knife into his arm. I heard the tribute yelling in pain, I could see a dark shadow falling off the tree, I could see the tribute falling to the ground in a loud 'thump!'. Ruby immediately jumped off the branch she was at, and she gracefully landed on her feet.

Diamond actually smiled at her. "Good job," He said and immediately turned to the little tribute. I could see now that it wasn't a boy like I initially thought. She was a girl. She was just a few meters away from where I was standing.

She looked tiny. Maybe she was twelve, maybe thirteen. I remembered her – the girl from District Six. It seemed like she hadn't eaten in weeks, months even. I could see the bones under her skin, which looked sickly grey, though maybe it looked that way because of the darkness and the moonlight. Her face was so thin and small, it looked like she was already dead. But her eyes… they were very much alive. Huge, shining, frightened.

I felt my stomach flipping when I looked at her eyes.

None of the other Careers felt the same way as me, apparently.

"Oh, you scared, little girl?" Dorado said in a voice that was almost a whisper and kneeled down on the ground next to her. He was holding his precious mace tightly in his hand, like he was afraid to lose it. The little girl was eyeing it in horror.

Shane joined him. He seemed rather excited. "It's a good thing that you're scared, little girl," He said, smiling sickly at her. "We're planning on giving the Capitol a show to remember. Bet it's going to hurt a little." Dorado and Cassiopeia chuckled at that. "But look at the bright side – you're going to be unforgettable."

The girl tried to move back in a hopeless attempt to escape, but Diamond immediately stepped forward and held her arm tightly in his hand. The girl hissed in pain, because it was the arm that Ruby stuck the knife into.

"Oh, you're not going anywhere," Diamond said flatly, an unreadable expression on his face.

He then turned to look at all of us. "Anyone wants to make the first hit?"

Shane smiled. "I'll go first." He took one of Ruby's knives and, slowly, started cutting off the girl's index finger in her right hand.

The girl immediately yelled form the awful pain. I immediately closed my eyes.

Ruby, who was standing next to me, put her hand on my arm lightly. "Open your eyes," She whispered, barely audible. "You're a Career. You can't look away."

She was right. Looking away from it would mean that I'm weak. So I slowly opened my eyes to see Shane cutting off the poor girl's fourth finger.

She was screaming at the top of her lungs, and Shane, who was getting sick of it, took the four fingers that he cut off her hand and stuck it in her mouth to silence her. She almost chocked on it, and the blood, her blood, dripped from the fingers to her lips.

After Shane finally cut off all of her ten fingers, Dorado decided to join Shane. He took the knife from Shane's hand and started curving with it on her face. The blade of the knife cut through her delicate, sick skin, and her blood started pouring from it. He wrote the word, 'bitch' on her forehead, then on her cheeks and nose and chin wrote a few other curses. The girl was shaking terribly, and I could still hear her making noises, but her fingers were still in her mouth and prevented her from screaming. She was crying though, and her tears mixed with the blood on her face.

I felt sick to my stomach. I wanted to run away from there, to throw up, but I was a Career, or at least pretending to be, so I stayed in my place and forced myself to watch the little girl getting tortured to death.

I had to take a huge breath when Dorado popped out her left eye with the knife.

And then couldn't help the tears that ran down my face as he took out her other eye as well.

Blind, pathetic, a bloody mess, the girl fainted on the dirty ground, looking like a broken horror doll.

Shane smiled in satisfaction. "Good job," He said to Dora.

I immediately wiped the tears off my face and looked around me at the other Career who didn't participate in it. Cassiopeia was looking at the little girl with a look of disgust. Ruby looked at a point in the distance, and probably tried to not concentrate on what Dora and Shane were doing. Diamond just looked at the girl with this unreadable expression that was on his face before.

Dorado wiped the blood that was on his fingers on his pants and got to his feet. "What now?" He asked Diamond.

Diamond stayed in his place for a few long moments, then he stepped forward and took Dorado's spikey mace. He stood next to the unconscious girl, mace in hand, and raised the mace higher in the air. In a quick, powerful move, he stuck the mace in the girl's stomach. Pieces of her flew everywhere, a piece of her skin and another thing from inside of her hit my cheek and I immediately got it off me.

The cannon boomed almost immediately.

I looked at what was left of the girl from District Six. Her legs were the only things that were left untouched. There were empty holes where her eyes used to be, curses were written with the blade of Ruby's knife all over her face, and her fingers were still inside of her mouth.

I wanted to throw up again.

I was actually glad she finally died. Thank God her suffer was finally over.

Cassiopeia looked at the girl. "We should continue with our hunt," She said simply, in an uncaring tone.

All eyes turned to Diamond, because even though no one said anything about it, it was clear he was our leader.

He looked at the damaged girl on the ground blankly for a few long seconds, then shrugged. "I'm actually pretty tired. We can continue with the hunt tomorrow morning."

Shane looked disappointed. "But –"

"You can kill more tributes tomorrow if you want, or you can go hunt them down all by yourself," Diamond said flatly. "We –" he pointed at all of us except Shane, "- are leaving. We can't be exhausted if we want to kill more tributes."

Shane couldn't really argue with that and decided to shut his mouth and not say anything in response. We all started following Diamond out of the clearing as he put on his 'mega super foxy cool night vision glasses'.

Ruby, who was walking with me now and was right next to me, smiled at me softly. "It's finally over."

I didn't know what to say in response to that, so I just made a noncommittal voice and continued walking.

Ruby scratched her head, then frowned. "What the hell..." She pulled the thing that was in her hair out and looked at it. She got it closer to her eyes to see it clearly, then she made a horrified squeak and threw the thing away.

"What? What was that?" I asked her, concerned.

Ruby shivered. "A piece of skin."

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><p><strong>So.<strong>

**That was gross.**

**Sorry about that chapter. I am terribly sorry. But this is the hunger games, and it's a dark story, and there are some horrible parts in there.**

**Hope it wasn't too horrible to read as it was for me to write it.**

**Also, am extremely sorry about not updating it for so long. School hard, you know. Hard to find time to do anything but studying or sleeping.**

**Oh, and I got to a conclusion that I really need a Beta, because the things I write are almost unreadable. Anyone's interested?**

**Hope you all have a lovely day, despite just reading this horrible, _horrible_ chapter :D**


	11. Chapter 11

**Thanks HOAnubisTS for betaing :)**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins does.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 11<strong>

We returned to our camp at the Cornucopia quietly. No one said a single word. It wasn't as dark when we got there, so it was clear that the sun was about to rise.

We all decided that Dora would be the first to take watch, and started to organize our sleeping bags.

But the horrors of the night didn't end, apparently.

"Yuck, there's a bug!" Ruby said in disgust and pointed at something on the ground, which I couldn't see.

"Oh, come on Ruby, it's just a bug," Diamond groaned, and I could almost feel him rolling his eyes.

"No, it's not _just_ a bug. It's big and it jumps and it flies!" Ruby sounded terrified.

"Seriously, stop being such a baby. The best it could do is fly into your mouth when you're asleep and lay eggs."

I couldn't help but snort at this. I quickly cleared my throat when Ruby shot me a dirty look for laughing at her in such a dark, horrifying moment. I could swear that I saw the corners of Diamond's mouth twitching upwards, though.

I got into my sleeping bag and looked around me. Ruby was still staring at the flying bug, her eyes filled with loathing. Cassiopeia, Diamond and Shane all slipped into their sleeping bags, while Dora circled the camp, spikey mace in hand. The expression on his face was challenging and full of menace, like he was trying to tell all the other tributes, 'I dare you to get near me!'

Which, in my opinion, was pretty stupid, since there were probably no tributes nearby. Why would any kid who wanted to survive would stay near the dangerous, vicious kids?

It took me some time to actually fall asleep, because knowing that Dora was watching over me didn't make me feel very secure. Yet it was very late (or very early, depends on how you look at it), and I was exhausted after a long day of watching kids die a gory death.

When I woke up, I noticed that the sun was already up in the sky, but everyone was still fast asleep. Well, everyone except…

"Shane," I greeted him groggily. I got on my feet, shaking my arms and legs to get the sand off me.

Shane turned his face to look at me, then nodded his head at me and returned to look at the woods.

I sat down next to him on a big log in front of the fading fire. He didn't turn to look at me again, and there was an uncomfortable silence between us.

"So… how's it going?" I asked finally when the silence became unbearable.

He stayed silent for a few long moments, and I was already sure that he's not going to answer when he said, "Fantastic."

I raised an eyebrow and looked at his face. I couldn't understand his facial expression. He might've been sad. I couldn't see the glint in his eyes very clearly.

"Is it about what happened yesterday?" I asked cautiously.

He was still slow to respond. "Yeah, I guess so."

I sighed. "Look, it was awful and disgusting and I hated it too, and –"

"What are you talking about?" Shane said, finally looking into my eyes. When he was looking ahead I thought he looked a bit bitter, but now… well, he didn't look bitter at all. The opposite, actually. He looked… peaceful. Almost happy.

This caught me a bit off guard. "Aren't you even a tiny bit… you know, disgusted by it? Don't you regret causing the girl pain?"

He smiled now, which was weird, because he almost never smiles, and his smile was weird and scary and crazy and twisted in every single way. "Disgusted? Regretful? Mags, it was… amazing. I was so in control of everything, you know? _I_ was the one causing the pain, _I_ was the one making it stop, _I_ was the one in charge, and _I_ had all the power! Tell me, what's so bad about it?"

He looked unhinged. He really did. The first time since I met him a week ago, his presence scared me. Most of the time he just looked too stupid to actually be scary, but now… now he just looked crazy. And, apparently, he was also a control freak.

"So… you don't care that you tortured her before she died?" I asked, feeling disgusted and disoriented by him.

He just laughed at it. "Tortured her… pain makes a person stronger, did you know that? Makes him tougher. Father always told me that."

"I doubt the girl feels strong and tough now, after she died," I said with wry contempt.

Shane shrugged his shoulders. "Who cares about her? She was weak and small and pathetic. Her destiny was to die."

I bit my lower lip and just stared at the fading fire without actually seeing it. Somewhere, deep down inside, I kind of liked Shane… somewhere really _really_ deep inside. Because he was from District Four, and we hailed from the same District, I felt connected to him on some level.

Needless to say, I didn't like him as much now.

Apparently he was watching me, because he said, "What? Did I _scare_ you?"

He said it mockingly. I averted my eyes and decided to stay quiet, because truthfully, yes, he scared me.

I felt relieved when I finally heard someone shuffling from behind me and Ruby came and perched herself next to me.

She closed her eyes, still very tired. "That bug… he kept me up most of the night. He jumped right into my shirt at one point, did you know that?"

"Yep," Came a reply from Shane, who was now looking at the almost non-existent fire. "Was on watch when it happened."

Ruby frowned. "I hate bugs."

I just nodded my head, not wanting to say a thing after what I heard from Shane.

An hour later, Cassiopeia, Dora and Diamond were all up and ready to go. "We should search for more tributes," Said Dora, and Shane was quick to agree.

Diamond turned to look at Ruby and then at me. "You two, stay here and don't let anyone get near to our supply," He commanded. Ruby and I nodded obediently. I didn't know about Ruby, but I sure as hell didn't want to go there and see Shane and Dora celebrating another tribute's death.

Dora, Shane, Cassiopeia and Diamond grabbed their weapons and strode into the woods, leaving Ruby and I at the Cornucopia alone.

Ruby scratched her head with a frown on her lips. "Oh, fucking hell…" She pulled out of her long wavy hair a tiny bug. "First the piece of skin, now _this_? I hate nature."

"I can organize your hair if you want," I offered.

Ruby smiled. "Thanks, Mags."

She sat on the ground in front of the log I was sitting on and I started braiding her hair in a hairstyle that was something between a braid and a bun – the braid went all across her head and created a tight bun. It was worn regularly in District Four.

As I braided her hair, she asked, "You okay?"

I nodded my head, even though I knew that from her current position on the floor she couldn't see me. "Everything's good," I murmured after a few moments.

She made a strange sound that sounded like a hum. "I heard your conversation, you know."

"What conversation?" Oh, like I didn't know what she was talking about.

"Your conversation with Shane," She said, her voice flat. "He's a sick bastard, I'll tell you that."

I shrugged my shoulders.

"You don't agree with me?" She asked disbelievingly.

"No, I do agree," I said hurriedly. "He's sick. It's just… I don't know. He really likes the idea of having control over someone else. Probably didn't have much control when he was young."

"Who cares how little control he had over people when he was young? Last night was gross. So icky and just… yuck. Dorado and Shane were all, 'MUHAHAHA', and the rest of us were all like, 'yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck', and the girl was all like, 'AHHHH!'…" She inhaled sharply. "…and it was bad."

I smirked. "Best description ever."

I finished with her braid and we started making a new fire after the last one burned out. As we added more and more wood to the fire, we heard a cannon boom. Another one followed shortly after.

Ruby was focused on the fire. "Guess they found another two," She said, emotionlessly.

Two hours later they returned, only they were one Career short.

"Where's Cassiopeia?" I questioned as they got to where Ruby and I were standing, near the fire.

"The little fucker from Seven killed her," Dorado said, sounding pissed off. "So I killed him."

. . .

What a nice gesture.

Diamond and Shane didn't seem to care much about Cassiopeia's death, and to be completely honest, I didn't care very much either. We never really talked much, and we weren't close. And anyway, this just meant that there was one less strong competitor left.

Of course, it would've been better if it was Dorado or Diamond or Shane that got killed, because they were stronger and way more terrifying than Cassiopeia was, but still.

Ruby also didn't seem to care too much. "What a shame," Was all she said before she turned to gaze into the fire.

Dorado was really annoyed by Cassiopeia's death though, and it showed. She was his district partner, after all. "I'll go hunting," He said stiffly and turned around on his heels, walking into the woods. Shane turned to walk with him wordlessly.

I looked at their backs until I couldn't see them anymore. It seemed like they became good friends here pretty fast. Two killing machines, working together and murdering hopeless kids for the fun of it.

Not so awesome in my opinion.

Ruby and I decided to clean ourselves in the big lake, which was partly hidden with trees. I loved the feeling of the water surrounding me and started swimming to the other side of the lake and back, overjoyed to be in a familiar environment again. In the end I got out of the water without Ruby, because she just didn't think she was clean enough.

I returned to the Cornucopia, shivering from the cold breeze that hit me when I got out of the water, and hurried to the fire. When I was in the water I swam only in my bra and underwear, so my clothes, which I wore again when I came out of the water, were relatively dry. They still weren't enough to keep my body warm, though.

I sat down on the same big log that Shane and I sat on just this morning. It was still very bright outside, but the temperature was dropping rapidly.

As I was getting warm by the fire, Diamond sat down on a different log that was close to where I was.

"How's the water?" he asked me.

"Good," I replied.

Uncomfortable silence.

Am I even capable of actually having comfortable silences with people?

He nodded his head and looked at the trees. I bit my lower lip and rocked in my place back and forth, feeling awkward.

A boom sounded.

"Think they killed someone?" I asked him.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Hope so."

I looked at him from the corner of my eye. He had the same blank expression on his face as yesterday. My gaze turned downwards, and I saw the same strip of blue fabric that I saw on his wrist at the Chariot Rides, tied up on his wrist like a handband.

"What's up with that fabric on your hand?" I asked, curiosity taking over me.

He turned to look into my eyes and almost absentmindedly touched the strip of fabric. "My token," He said simply without elaborating.

I raised an eyebrow. "_That_ is your token? What, no diamonds and precious stones?"

"It was ripped off my brother's shirt," Diamond said stiffly.

I raised my other eyebrow as well. "Awwwwwww! So _sweet_!"

He rolled his eyes. "Shut up."

A smile crept onto my lips. "No, seriously, it's so cute, brotherly love and all. Like, a piece of cheap fabric that was ripped off a shirt of a person you love is more important than any precious gemstone out there, right?"

He looked at me for a long moment before nodding his head, somewhat hesitantly. "Right."

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><p><strong>So.<strong>

**I updated this story pretty quickly because, well, last chapter was bad. And by bad, I simply mean gross.**

**This story is not going to be all dark and gross and stuff. I did plan a few... ahh... icky things, and there are going to be a few dark moments, but I just love writing simple awkward moments between the characters here, so have no worry! It's not going to be a super disgusting story. Only some of it.**

**Okay, so I really want to ask you this - what do you thing about the characters? Who do you like and who do you hate? As the one who created all of them (except Mags of course), I'm really interested to know what is your opinion on them.**

**Hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and have a lovely day! :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins does.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 12<strong>

The next two days were relatively uneventful. We killed two more tributes, the boy from Eight and the boy from Ten, and we were down to ten tributes, including us five Careers.

I found myself getting more and more comfortable with Ruby, who although a bit dumb, was a nice girl. Shane and Dora started hanging out together more and more and excluded Ruby, Diamond and I from their daily walks and other activities, which Diamond found very suspicious ("If I didn't know any better, I would've thought that they are gay for each other," Diamond said moodily one day after being excluded from another private meeting of Dora and Shane). Maybe Diamond was right and Shane and Dora disappeared into the woods all the time to taste each other's sausage, but the chances that that was the case were slim.

After a very boring day I decided to do something useful and started making fishhooks. Okay, maybe making fishhooks out of sticks and branches and grass wasn't very useful since there were a lot of other items we possessed that could kill viciously, but it gave me something to do, and it reminded me of home.

"How do you _do_ that?" Ruby asked me as I made another fishhook out of a big branch I found. She looked at me working with big eyes. She probably never made anything that resembled a weapon before, since all the weapons she ever used in her life were pretty much given to her.

I shrugged my shoulders and continued turning the branch into a fishhook. "Years of practice." I started making fishhooks in art classes at kindergarten, when I was five years old. While the other kids drew fishes and sea and waves, I turned the leaves we were given to paint on into a fishhook. The teacher was kinda annoyed, because I didn't follow her instructions.

Father was thrilled that he had such a creative daughter.

"It's insane," Ruby commented with a smile. "Can you make a fishhook out of a diamond?"

I snorted. "What, with this glorious tool?" I raised the small knife I used.

Ruby bit her lower lip. "Perhaps, with a bigger knife…"

I returned to my fishhook. Shane and Dora disappeared again, and Diamond was nowhere to be seen. Maybe his annoyance with Shane and Dora's secret meetings drove him into spying on them and learning all their secrets.

Or maybe he just wanted to taste their sausages, too.

Heehee.

I saw Ruby move from the corner of my eye and turned to look at her. She was scratching her head. Her hair was still in the same braid I did to her two and a half days ago.

"My head itches so much," Ruby said, annoyed with her stupid head that itched all the time.

"Maybe you've got lice?" I suggested.

Ruby gave me a horrified look. "Oh, _no_. Oh no oh no oh _no_…"

"What's wrong? It's just lice."

"Just lice? Just lice? Stupid, tiny little creatures that suck your blood and crawl on your head and get tangled in your hair…"

"Oh, don't make such a big deal out of nothing," I said as I rolled my eyes. "In District Four, everyone has lice all the time."

"Yes, but I'm not some dirty little girl from filthy District Four!" Ruby said loudly, panicked and disgusted.

I frowned and returned to my fishhook.

She realized what she said and bit her lip. "Sorry."

"Shut up," I said in return.

"You mad?"

"No. And shut up."

"You are mad."

"What gave me away?"

Ruby sighed. "I'm sorry," She repeated.

I was still looking at my fishhook. "District Four is not filthy."

"I know," Ruby said.

"And the girls there are not dirty."

"I know," Ruby repeated.

"We just have a serious problem of lice. From all the sand."

"Point noted."

"Okay. Good." I threw the fishhook at the other fishhooks I've made and got on my feet.

"I'm going for a walk," I said and started walking away.

"Wait, are you still mad at me for what I said?" Ruby exclaimed.

I turned around to look at her. "No..."

"Then why are you walking away so fast?" Ruby questioned and started walking towards me. "You hate me now, is that it? You try to escape me!"

I was confused. "No, I don't, it's just –"

"Then why didn't you offer me to come with you?" Ruby asked, starting to panic. "You wanted to search for Shane and tell him what I said and make him kill me for what I said about your District! Is that what you were trying to do? You know, it was just a momentarily slip. I didn't really mean that _everyone_ from District Four is dirty and disgusting, I just –"

"Ruby," I said loudly, stopping her ramble. "I'm not mad at you."

"Then why you turned to walk away so fast?" Ruby said, pressing on the matter.

I looked into her eyes and told her the truth. "I really need to pee."

Ruby blushed. "Oh," She said, then returned to sit next to the fishhooks I made. "Well, no need for me to go with you _there_. Ahm… I'll just… stay here."

"Yeah, that would be best," I agreed, then started walking into the woods. I understood why Ruby panicked after I got angry – in this Games, you cannot trust anyone. Especially not the girl who can rat on you to the manic guy from her District. Being so far away from people you can actually trust was taking its toll on Ruby, and probably on other people here as well.

After finishing with my business, I decided to go to the lake I love so much. The lake was the only thing here that slightly resembled District Four. The water wasn't as salt as the water in the sea, and it was much smaller and there weren't any special fish in it, but it was water all the same, and I enjoyed swimming in it.

But when I got there, I saw that someone else was occupying the lake.

_"Holy Anchovy with scales all over!"_

A very naked Diamond turned to look at me, and I was hit with a very glorious – and very intimidating – sight.

"Holy Anchovy?" Diamond asked, apparently not founding it very wrong that he was naked in front of me.

"Yeah… ah… it's… i-it's a phrase in…" Dear God, I was stuttering. I was looking everywhere around me so that I won't have to look at his equipment, which was dangling between his legs.

"A phrase in District Four?" Diamond completed, apparently finding the whole situation to be very amusing and not-at-all embarrassing.

I nodded my head, fixing my eyes on a bug that rested on a leaf nearby.

"You guys from District Four are very weird," Diamond commented.

"Ahm," I said, barely listening. The image of his thingy was still in my brain. I tried to think of other things, but every thought I had led me back to his equipment between his legs.

Oh God.

I heard a laugh and knew it was coming from Diamond. I was still too occupied with images of his body that I wasn't even shocked that he laughed, actually _laughed_.

"All right, all right, I'm all covered now," Diamond said, and I turned to look at him again. He was wearing his pants now, but I still found it quite difficult to look at his face.

I was way too embarrassed.

"Come on, you act like you've never seen a naked guy before," Diamond said.

I decided to stay silent.

"Oh no," Diamond said, smiling now. "You really haven't, ah?"

"So I take from this that you've seen a lot of naked guys before?"

Diamond was still smiling. "A lot more than you apparently." He stepped closer to me and put on his shirt. "I thought that in District Four you barely wear clothes and that you're naked most of the time."

I was confused now and actually looked at his face. "What? Why did you think _that_?"

"Because you always swim."

"Being naked is not necessary for swimming," I replied dryly.

"Maybe so, but it's so much nicer to swim naked than with your clothes on."

"If you say so."

Diamond started walking back to our little camp, and I walked beside him, looking forward instead of looking at him. "So you never tried swimming naked?" Diamond asked. I didn't say anything, and I could see him from the corner of my eye shaking his head. "You're weird."

"Doesn't it _bother_ you?" I asked finally and turned to look at him.

"What?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"That I saw you naked, that the whole Capitol saw you naked, that little kids from the Capitol saw you naked," I elaborated, and he just shrugged his shoulders.

"Why would it bother me?" He asked, obviously not understanding why I was bothered with this. "What's wrong with a little nudity?"

"It's… inappropriate," I said tastefully.

"It _is_ how God _intended_ us," Diamond said simply.

I said nothing.

"Is this conversation making you… _uncomfortable_?"

He said the word 'uncomfortable' like it was the most precious word in the world. "I'm very comfortable with were this conversation is heading," I said, my high-pitched voice betraying what I just said.

"Sure you are," Diamond said. After a few more moments of just walking silently, he said, "You know, I'm thinking about becoming a nudist."

I choked on my own spit, which, I won't lie, was quite embarrassing. "Wh-_what_?"

Diamond nodded his head thoughtfully. "Yeah, you know, to feel more connected to earth and stuff. Maybe hug some trees while I'm at it, rub my _stuff_ against it –"

"No, please don't!" The thought of Diamond being naked all the time was frightening.

He smiled. "Kidding."

I frowned. "_Don't_ then."

"Does my naked body really made you feel _that_ horrified?" Diamond sounded curious now.

I started picking my nails, which I bet was very attractive. "It's just… God, just keep your pants on from now on!"

He snorted. "I'll try my hardest to control my desire to take my pants off whenever you're around."

"Thanks."

A few more minutes of silence, and finally we reached our destination. Shane and Dora haven't returned yet, and Ruby was all alone next to the fire, scratching her itchy head.

Ruby frowned when she saw us. "What took you so long?"

Before I could say anything, Diamond said, "Well, Mags had a small situation on her way here. After seeing me in all my glory she just couldn't help herself. It was so hard to convince her to let me wear my pants again…"

I looked at Diamond with narrowed eyes while Ruby's eyes were all wide with excitement. "Jerk."

* * *

><p><strong>Haven't updated this story for four months... :S<strong>

**I have no idea if you people are actually still reading this story or not. Of course, if you read this AN, then you probably still do, and if so, I LOVE YOU for waiting so long. **

**It's hard to write. It's hard to get an inspiration to write. It's hard to make time to write. So... yep. I'm hardly on fanfiction anymore, as sad as it is. I don't know, it's just a long time that I didn't have the power to write.**

**So the fact that this chapter is here right now is somewhat of a miracle. And I had fun writing it. You don't know it, but this chapter, although pretty uneventful, is a pretty important chapter. It's the beginning of a few things I've planned for a long time now. **

**You'll see.**

**I'll try to update soon. I really will try. Just... be patient. **

**Oh, and to me, this chapter pretty much revolved around penis, without actually using the word. So yeah - sausage, equipment, thingy, stuff - all those words replaced the one word that I wasn't sure if I should include. Heehee. **

**I'm so dirty minded. **

**Anyway... have a lovely day :D**


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